THE 

THEOLOGICAL WORKS 



THOMAS PAINE. 

TO WHICH ARE ADDED 

THE PROFESSION OF FAITH OF A SAVOYARD VICAR, 

BY J. J. ROUSSEAU \ A 

AND OTHER MISCELLANEOU^ PIECES. 




BOSTON : 

PRINTED FOR THE ADVOCATES OP COMMON SENSE. 
1 8 40. 



\ 



INTRODUCTION. 



BY THE EDITOR, 



NO writer probably has exposed the impositions practised upon mankind under 
the garb of religion with more effect than Thomas Paine y and no one has borne a 
greater share of obloquy from those who conceive their interests to be connected with 
a continuance of the fraud. The pulpit and the press have teemed incessantly with 
the most virulent censures against him. — But patient and persevering, temperate and 
firm, he suffered no error to escape him, and the exposure of the blunders and ab- 
surdities of his adversaries is the only revenge which he has condescended to take for 
their insolent abuse. His object was the happiness of man, and no calumny could 
divert him from his purpose. He conscientiously believed that human happiness de- 
pended on the belief of one God, and the practice of moral virtue ; and that all reli- 
gious faith beyond that led to persecution and misery. History gives an awful 
confirmation of the justness of his opinion. Dr. Bellamy, author of " The history 
of all religions," comes to this conclusion at last, that he was " well assured 
that true religion consists neither in doctrines, nor opinions, but in uprightness of 
neart." 

Religion has been most shamefully perverted, for sinister purposes, and made to 
consist in the belief of something supernatural and incomprehensible ; and these in- 
comprehensible beliefs are made to vary in different countries as may suit those who 
tyrannize over the minds and consciences of men. Thus, in some countries, he who 
says he believes, that a certain man, in former times, was translated bodily to heaven, 
that another took a journey leisurely there in a fiery chariot, and that a third arrejUP'^ 
ed the course of the sun to give him more daylight for human slaughter, is denomin- 
ated a. pious, good man. In other countries, a person to gain the same appellation, 
must believe that Mahomet, in one night, took a ride to heaven upon his horse Bo- 
rack, had a long conversation with the angel Gabriel, visited all the planets, and got 
to bed with his wife before morning ; and, upon another occasion, that he cut the 
moon in two parts, and carried the one half in his pocket to light his army. Whilst 
on the contrary the philosopher, who, wishing to instruct and render his fellow men 
happy, honestly declares that he puts no faith in such idle stories, is considered an 
impious, wicked man. 

It is time that, these prejudices, so disgraceful to the intelligence of the present age, 
should be banished from the world, and it behoves all men of understanding and 
talents to lend a helping hand to effect it. . 

" Prejudices," says Lequinio, an elegant French writer, in his work entitled, ' Les 
Prejuges Detruits,' cc arise out of ignorance and the want of reflection ; these are 
the basis on which the system of despotism is erected, and it is the master piece of 
art in a tyrant, to perpetuate the stupidity of a nation, in order to perpetuate its 
slavery and his own dominion. If the multitude knew how to think, would they be 
dupes to phantoms, ghosts, hobgoblins, spirits, &c. as they have been at all times 
and in all nations. What U nobility for example, to a man who thinks 1 What are 
all those abstract beings, children of an exalted imagination, which have no existence 
but in vulgar credulity, and who cease to have being as soon as we cease to believe in 
them * The greatest, the most absurd, and the most foolish of all prejudices, is that 
very prejudice which induces men to believe that they are necessary for their hap- 
piness, and for the very existence of society." 

The same writer observes, that M while there are religions, we are told there will 
be fanaticism, miracles, wars, knaves, and dupes. There are penitents, fanatics. 



4 



INTRODUCTION. 



and hypocrites, in China and in Turkey, as well as in France ;* but there is not any 
religion, perhaps, in which there exists such a spirit of intolerance as in that profess- 
ed by the christian priests, the author of which 'preached up toleration by his exam- 
ple, as well as by his precepts." 

Notwithstanding the intolerant spirit which prevails pretty universally aniong^ all 
those, who call themselves true believers ,• notwithstanding the persecutions and in- 
quisitorial tortures which take place daily, in a greater or less degree, throughout the 
christian world, there are many who, although they profess liberal opinions, are so 
indifferent in matters of religion, as to contend, that they ought not to be discussed, 
except by those whose peculiar province it is to teach them. Upon this principle, Mr. 
Paine has been condemned by many, even of his friends, as though all men had not 
an equal stake at issue, and an equal right to express their opinions on so momen- 
tous a subject. This sentiment exhibits an apathy to human suffering, in those who 
express it, that is certainly not very flattering to their goodness of heart. 

Were it not for the writings of philosophers, which, where they have been per- 
mitted to be read, have in some measure softened the asperity of fanaticism, all Chris- 
tendom would, no doubt, now experience the same sufferings as are at this time in- 
dured in Spain, under the government of the pious Ferdinand, 

Even Bishop Watson, who wrote an " apology for the Bible," in answer to the 
"Age of Reason," disclaims the above illiberal sentiment; graciously conceding 
the right of private judgment in matters of religion. He says, " it would give me 
much uneasiness to be reported an enemy to free inquiry in religious matters, or as 
capable of being animated into any degree of personal malevolence against those 
who differ from me in opinion. On the contrary, I look upon the right of private 
judgment, in every concern respecting God and ourselves, as superior to the controul 
of human authority." 

It is with some reluctance that I make the following extract of a private letter, a 
copy of which has lately been inclosed to me by my correspondent at New-York ; 
but the contents are so much in point on this occasion, that I am induced to take the 
liberty. It was w r ritten by one of the most distinguished patriots of the American 
revolution, and who still remains a living witness of the services of those who essen- 
tially contributed to that memorable event, in answer to a letter covering that of Mr. 
Paine to Andrew A. Dean ; which will appear in this publication. — " I thank you, 
sir, for die inedited letter of Thomas Paine, which you have been so kind as to send 
me. I recognize in it the strong pen and dauntless mind of Common Sense, which 
among the numerous pamphlets written on the same occasion, so pre-eminently united 
us in our revolutionary opposition. 

" I return the two numbers of the periodical paper, as they appear to make part of 
a regular file. The language of these is too harsh, more calculated to irritate than to 
convince or to pe-rsuade. A devoted friend, myself to freedom of religious inquiry and 
opinion, I am pleased to see others exercise the right without reproach or censure ; 
and I respect their conclusions, however different from my own. It is their own 
reason, not mine, nor that of any other, which has been given them by their creator 
for the investigation of truth, and of the evidences even of those truths which are 
presented to us as revealed by himself. Fanaticism, it is true, is not sparing of 
her invectives against those who refuse blindly to follow her dictates in abandon- 
ment of their own reason. For the use of this reason, however, every one is responsi- 
ble to the God who has planted it in his breast, as a light for his guidance, and that 
by which alone he will be judged. Yet why retort invectives 1 It is better always 
to set a good example than to follow a bad one." 

The advice recommended to controvertists in the foregoing letter is certainly wor- 
thy to be adopted. That recrimination, however, should some times be resorted to, 
by those who advocate liberal opinions, is not surprising, when we take into consider- 
ation the dictatorial stile in which ignorance is cultivated by those who reap the ad- 
vantage of it, and the asperity with which those are attacked who attempt to un- 
deceive mankind, and to discover to them their true interests, by pointing out the 
errors with which they are surrounded. 

" Error," says St. Pierre, in his Indian Cottage, or Search after Truth, " is the 
' work of man ; it is always an evil. It is a false light which shines to lead us astray. 
I cannot better compare it than to the glare of a fire which consumes the habitation 
it illumines. It is worthy of remark, that there is not a single moral or physical 
evil but has an error for its principle. Tyrannies, slavery and wars, are founded on 



*The author's country. 



INTRODUCTION. 



5 



political errors, nay even on sacred ones ; for the tyrants who have propagated them 
have constantly derived them from the Divinity, or some virtue, to render them re- 
spected by their subjects. 

It is, notwithstanding, very easy to distinguish error from truth. Truth is a natural 
light, which shines of itself throughout the whole earth, because it springs from God. 
Error is an artificial light, which needs to be fed incessantly, and which can never be 
universal, because it is nothing more than the work of man. Truth is useful to all 
men; error is profitable but to a few, and is hurtful to the generality, because in- 
dividual interest, when it separates itself from it, is inimical to general interest. 

Particular care should be taken not to confound fiction with error. Fiction is the 
n veil of truth, whilst error is its phantom; and the former has been often invented to 
dissipate the latter. But, however . innocent it may be in its principle, it becomes 
dangerous when it assumes the leading quality of error ; that is to say, when it is 
turned to the particular profit of any set of men." 

The christian religion answers exactly to this description of error, in every particu- 
lar. It has been " fed incessantly" for upwards of eighteen hundred years ; millions 
upon millions have been expended on its priests to propagate it, and it is still far from 
being universal. According to Bellamy's history of all Religions ; of eight hundred 
millions of souls, which the world is supposed to contain, " one hundred and eighty-three 
millions only are christians. One hundred and thirty millions are Mahometans. 
Three millions are Jews, and four hundred and eighty-seven millions are Pagans. 

Is not this a convincing proof that Christianity cannot be true % If it had been 
divinely inspired, and God had actually visited this earth, for the purpose of teaching 
it to man, would it not, long before this time, have extended throughout the world 1 
It is the work of man, and therefore can never become universal. 

Ministers of the gospel, instead of teaching the principles of moral virtue, which 
would render them useful to their fellow men, are almost incessantly inculcating their 
peculiar and favorite dogmas : Wishing to make religion to consist in what it does 
not, in the belief of unintelligible creeds, in order to render the subject complex, that 
their preaching might be thought the more necessary to explain it. 

A great portion of these ministers, moreover are mere boys ; who, after learning 
a little Greek and Latin, setup the trade of preaching; and anathematise all who 
do not submissively bow to their dictation. It is lamentable to see decriped age hob- 
♦ bling after such teachers in search of the road to heaven. One grain of common 
sense would save them all that trouble. 

Although the injury, resulting from the heavy contributions required for the support 
of Christianity, is not, perhaps, so great as that arising from the demoralizing effects of 
substituting nonsensical creeds for moral virtue, yet these expenditures are serious 
evils. 

By a work lately published, relative to the consumption of wealth by the clergy, it . 
appears, that the clergy of Great Britain alone receive annually, the enormous sum of 
8,896,000 pounds sterling', which is divided among 18,400 clergymen ; but very un- 
equally. Bishop Watson gets, for his share of the booty, £7,000 a year, which one 
would think, was sufficient to induce him to vindicate the christian religion, or any 
other, equally productive.* , 

The primate Lord J. Beresford, archbishop of Armagh, has above 63,000 acres of 
land, of which more than 50,000 are arrable. His grace is a man in middle life, and 
of a healthy constitution. Suppose him to run his life against the leases let by his 
predecessor, he would have the power of ruining perhaps a hundred families, and ob- 
taining for himself a rack rent of not less than £70,000 or £80,000 per annum. 

The see of Dublin has upwards of 20,000 acres. Much of this being near the me- 
tropolis, must be considered as of extraordinary value. 

But every thing is eclipsed by Derry ; there we have 94,000 Irish v acres appropri- 
ated to my lord the bishop— little short of 150,000 English acres ! and should his 

* Dr. Franklin, in a letter to Dr. Price, (1780) speaking of the religious tests, in- 
corporated into the constitution of Massachusetts, observes, "If christian preachers 
had continued to teach as Christ and his apostles did, without salaries, and as the 
Quakers now do, I imagine tests would never have existed; for I think they were 
invented not so much to secure religion itself as the emolument of it. When a re- 
ligion is good, I conceive it will support itself ; and when it does not support itself, 
and God does not take care to support it, so that its professors are obliged to call for 
the help of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one." Religious 
tests have been abrogated in Massachusetts by the late revision of its constitution. 



6 



INTRODUCTION. 



lordship at the beginning of his incumbency, have thought fit to run his life against 
the tenants, he^would now, at the expiration of twenty years, possess a larger rent 
roll than any subject in the world. Yet it was this very see which begged assistance 
towards repairing its own cathedral ! 

By the Almanach du clergy du France for 1823, it appears that there are fifty-four 
bishops and archbishops, already consecrated, out of the eighty France is to have. 
There are, also, already, 35,67(> priests in activity, exclusive of missionaries, and 50,934 
is the number the bishops judge necessary to complete the Army of the Church — 2,031 
are, moreover, pensioned. Then, in the schools and at their different colleges, there 
are 29,379 youths preparing for clerical duties. The revenue of the priests even now 
amounts to 28,000,000 francs, exclusive of sums destined to repair the churches, and 
other ecclesiastical services, which, amounting to 1,500,000 francs, will also pass 
through their hands, and exclusive of the sums collected by the missionaries, and con- 
tributed by the communes, both of which are very considerable. From the same 
book, it appears that since 1802, the legacies and gifts received by the church, and 
held in Mortmain, amount to 13,388,554 francs, giving an annual revenue, after ab- 
stracting from this sum many church ornaments, of 450,000 francs. Of this sum, no 
less than 2,332,554 francs were contributed within the last year. 

There are in Rome, 19 cardinals, 27 bishops, 1450 priests, 1532 monks, 1464 friars, 
and 332 seminarists. The population of Rome, in 1821, without reckoning the Jews, 
amounted to 146,000 souls. 

Among the evils entailed upon mankind by establishing a religion that requires the 
renunciation of reason, hypocrisy holds a conspicuous place, as the most pernicious in 
its effects on society. It lowers the dignity of man ; it checks the progress of the 
human mind, by smothering that frank and liberal communication of thought, which 
leads to improvement ; in short, it destroys all confidence among friends the most in- 
timate. " If," says ka Bruyere, " I marry an avaricious woman, she will take care 
of my money ; if a gambler, she may win ; if a learned woman, she may instruct me ; 
if a vixen, she will teach me patience;, if a coquette, she will take pains to please; 
but if I marry a hypocrite that affects to be religious, (une devote) what can I expect 
from her who tries to deceive even her God, and who almost deceives herself."" 

The clergy are fond of attributing all the calamities, incident to human nature, to 
supernatural influence.. Not, it is presumed, because they believe what they pretend 
but on account of the reputation it gives them for extraordinary piety. Thus in the 
sea-port towns even of the United States, which have been afflicted with yellow 
fever, I have observed, that some of their clergy considered it as a special judgment of 
God, arising from the passion of the people for threatrical exhibitions, &c. And fast- 
ings and prayers were resorted to, to appease the wrath of the Almighty. But these 
doctors of divinity, it is said, when attacked with yellow fever,, or any other se- 
rious complaint, immediately employ a physical doctor to cure them; which is suffi- 
cient evidence that they do not believe their own doctrine ; for it would be vain, and 
impious, to attempt to cure those whom God intended to destroy. Incalculable evils 
may result from the promulgation of this doctrine : Because those who have faith in 
it, may, as is the fact in some countries, refuse to take medicine in case of sickness, 
and thereby sacrifice their own lives to folly and superstition. 

The Emperor o£. China, however, fully agrees with these christian doctors in his con- 
ceptions of supernatural interference in passing events ; and takes the same means to 
assuage the wrath of the Gods, as appears by the following statement of what took 
place in consequence of a hurricane and drought at Peking and Pe-che-le province. 

On the 13th of May, 1818, there was a violent hurricane at Peking, which produced 
much alarm among all sorts of people. The Emperor published an edict on the sub- 
ject, in which he declares he was extremely frightened. He says " it rained dust," 
and produced such profound darkness that nothing could be seen without a candle. 
It was not so violent however as to produce any serious injury, and the apprehensions 
ofahe people, and particularly of the Emperor, proceeded from the belief that such 
phenomena are punishments for some mismanagement among the rulers of the country 
The Emperor gives a long list of the evil effects of improper measures in governing, 
and exhorts his officers to join him in self-examination to find out the true cause of this 
calamity. In another document he blames the imperial astronomers for not foreseeing 
and foretelling the hurricane, instead of flattering him as they had formerly done, 
with the hope of tranquillity ; and to calculate with accuracy the intentions of heaveny 
He also despatched a messenger towards the south-east, where the storm arose, as he 
is confident there must have been some act of oppression committed in that direction. 



INTRODUCTION. 



1 



The Mathematical Board sent up the result of their learned researcnes on the sub- 
ject, but declined to express any opinion- of their own. If it had continued a whole 
day it would have indicated some disagreement between the Emperor and his Minis- 
ters ; also a great drought and scarcity of grain. If but for an hour, pestilence in 
the south-west, and half the population diseased in the south-east. If the wind had 
blown the sand, and moved stones with a loud noise, inundations, &c. 

The Gazette of the same date contains a paper in which the Emperor expresses 
much grief at a long drought at Pe-che-le province. He had sent his sons to fast, pray 
and sacrifice to heaven, earth, and the god of the wind, but this had obtained only a 
slight shower. His Majesty wrote a prayer himself, and appointed a day to go with 
his brother, and two more persons, to sacrifice ; the Emperor to heaven* his brother 
to the earth, the first of their companions to the divinity that rules the passing year, 
and the second to the god of the winds. A day was also appointed for a general fast 
and sacrifice, on which the kings, nobles, ministers of state, attending officers, sol- 
diers, and servants, were to appear in a peculiar cap and garment as a mark of 
penitence. The two sons of his Majesty were to sacrifice at the same time in two 
other places. 

Such idle vagaries ought to be eradicated from the mind of man, that he may con- 
template his true predicament in nature, provide for his wants and ward off approach- 
ing danger. It is to be hoped that time is not far distant when this happy event will 
be realized, especially in that portion of the globe where science is generally diffused 
It requires only the honest and bold co-operation of men of learning to effect it. 

As the opinions of great and good men, provided they have no interest to uphold 
superstition, ought to have weight on the minds of those less informed, I shall here 
subjoin the brief sentiments of a few celebrated characters, in support of Mr. Paine's 
infidelity. 

DR. FRANKLIN. r ; 
Letter from Dr. Franklin to the Rev.. George Whitefeld. % 

Philadelphia, J u if e 6th, 1753. 

Dear Sir, 

I received your kind letter of the 2d inst. and am glad to hear that you increase in 
strength — I hope you will continue mending until you recover your former health and 
firmness. Let me know whether you still use the cold bath, and what effect it has a 
As to the kindness you mention, I wish it could have been of more serious service to 
you ; but if it had, the only thanks that I should desire, are, that you would always 
be ready to serve any other person that may need your assistance ; and so let good 
offices go round ; for mankind are all of a family. For my own part, when I am 
employed in a serving others, I do not look upon myself as conferring favors, but as 
paying debts. In my travels and since my settlement, I have received much kindness 
from men, to whom I shall never have an opportunity of making the least direct re- 
turn ; and numberless mercies from God, who is infinitely above being benefited by 
our services. These kindnesses from men, I can, therefore, only return to their fel- 
low men ; and I can only show my gratitude to God by a readiness to help his other 
children, and my brethren, for I do not think that thanks and compliments, though re- 
peated weekly, can discharge our real obligations to each other, and much less, to our 
Creator. 

You will see, in this, my notion of good works, that I am far from expecting to merit 
heaven by them. By heaven, we understand a state of happiness, infinite in degree 
and eternal in duration. I can do nothing to deserve such a reward. He that, for 
giving a draught of water to a thirsty person, should expect to be paid with a good 
plantation, would be modest in his demands compared with those who think they de- 
serve heaven for the little good they do on earth. Even the mixed imperfect pleas- 
ures we enjoy in this world, are rather from God's goodness than our merit ; how 
much more so the happiness of heaven 1 for my part, I have not the vanity to think 
I deserve it, the folly to expect or the ambition to desire it, but content myself in sub- 
mitting to the disposal of that God who made me, who has hitherto preserved and 
blessed me, and in whose fatherly goodness I may well confide, that he never will 
make me miserable, and that the affliction I may at any time suffer, may tend to my 
benefit. 

The faith you mention has, doubtless, its use in the world. I do not desire to see 
it diminished, nor would I desire to lessen it in any man, but I wish it were more 
productive of good works than I have generally seen it. I mean real good works, 
works of kindness, charity, mercy and public spirit ; not holy day-keeping, sermon- 
hearing or reading; performing church ceremonies, or making long prayers, filled 



8 



INTRODUCTION 



with flatteries and compliments, despised even by wise men, and much less capable 
of pleasing the Deity. 

The worship of God is a duty — the hearing and reading may be useful ; but if men 
rest in hearing and praying, as too many do, it is as if the tree should value itself on 
being watered and putting forth leaves though it never produced any fruit. 

Your good master thought much less of these outward appearances than many of his 
modern disciples. He preferred the doers of the word to the hearers ; the son that 
seemingly refused to obey his father and yet performed his commands, to him that 
professed his readiness but neglected the work ; the heretical but charitable Samari- 
tan, to the uncharitable but orthodox priest and sanctified Levite, and those who gave 
food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, and raiment to the naked, entertainment to 
the stranger, and never heard of his name, he declares shall, in the last day, be ac- 
cepted ; when those who cry, Lord, Lord, who value themselves ou their faith, though 
great enough to perform miracles, but have neglected good works, shall be rejected. 
He professed that he came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance, which 
implied his modest opinion that there were some in Iris time so good that they need 
Lot hear him even for improvement, but now-a-days we have scarcely a little parson- 
that does not think it the duty of every man within his reach to sit under his petty 
ministration, and that whoever omits this offends God — I wish to such more humility, 
and to you, health and happiness. 

Being your friend and servant, 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN- 



Extract of a letter from the same to Ezra Stiles, President of Yale College, 

Philadelphia, March 9, 1790. 

Ret. and Dear Sir, 

You desire to know something of my religion. It is the first time I have been ques- 
tioned upon it. But I cannot take your curiosity amiss, and shall endeavor in a few 
w ord5 to gratify it, Here, is my creed. I believe in one God, the Creator of the 
Universe. That he governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be worshipped. 
That the most acceptable service we render him is doing good to his other children. 
That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life re- 
specting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound 
religion, and I regard them as yop do in whatever sect I meet with them. As to 
Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think die system of 
morals, and his religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw, or is like 
to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have, with 
most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity ; though it is 
a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to 
busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth 
with less trouble.* I see no harm however in its being believed, if that belief has the - 
good consequence, as probably it has, of making his doctrines more respected, and 
more observed, especially us I do not perceive that the Supreme takes it amiss, by 
distinguishing the believers in his government of the world with any particular marks 
of his displeasure. I shall only add, respecting myself, that having experienced the 
goodness of that Being, in conducting me prosperously through a long life, I have no 
doubt of its continuance in the next, though without the smallest conceit of meriting 
such goodness. My sentiments on this head you will see in the copy of an old letter 
inclosed,! which I wrote in answer to one from an old religionist, whom I had re- 
lieved in a paralytic case by electricity, and who being afraid I should grow proud 
upon it, sent me his serious, though rather impertinent caution. 

With great and sincere esteem and affection, I am, &c. 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

REMARKS. 

As Dr. Franklin evidently disbelieves in any benefit to be gained in a future state 
by faith in the mysteries of Vne christian religion, and as the little influence it may 

* The Doctor had indeed deferred an examination into the divinity of Jesus to a 
very late hour ; for he says in the same letter, " I am now in my 85th year, and very 
infirm." He died the 17th of April following. 

t Supposed to refer to the foregoing letter to George Whitefield. 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

producing good works, are evidently over-balanced by the evils produced by 
it, no good reasons can be urged for its cultivation. The objections to this faith are, 
that it creates pride, uncharitableness and persecution. Whoever believes that he 
knows perfectly the will of God. naturally despises all others not favored with the 
like divine grace. He becomes a contemptible despot, prepared to commit any ant 
of outrage against unbelievers in his creed, in order the more effectually to ingratiate 
himself with the divinity he worships. He takes up the cause of God as his own af- 
fair, and acts accordingiy. 

, Those who call themselves orthodox believers of the present day, would do well to 
imitate the example of the Roman Emperor, Titus, who, in his edict, occasioned by 
the importunities of the orthodox of that time for the punishment of christians for 
unbelief, observed, " I am very well assured, that the Gods themselves will take care, 
that this kind of men shall not escape, it being much more their concern, than it can 
be yours, to punish those that refuse to worship them." 

To show Dr. Franklin's opinions more fully upon this subject, I shall make a few 
more extracts from his writings. In a letter to B. Vaughan, (1788) he says, " Re- 
member me affectionately to good Dr. Price and to the honest heretic Dr. Priestley. I 
do not caU him honest by way of distinction : for I think all the heretics I have 
known have been virtuous men. They have the virtue of fortitude, or they would not 
venture to own their heresy ; and they cannot afford to be deficient in any of the other 
virtues, as that, would b tve advantage to their many enemies; and they have not, like, 
orthodox sinners, such a number of friends to excuse or justify them. Do not how- 
ever mistake me. It is not to my good friend's heresy that I impute his honesty. 
On the contrary, 'tis his honesty that has brought upon him the character of heretic." 

Again, in a letter to Mrs. Partridge, (1788) he observes, " You tell me our poor 
friend, Ben Kent is gone, I hope to the regions of the blessed ; or at least to some 
place where souls are prepared for those regions ! I found my hope on this, that 
though not so orthodox as you and I, he was an honest man, and had his virtues. 
If he had any hypocrisy, it was of that inserted kind, with which a man is not so 
bad as he seems to be, And with regard to future bliss, I cannot help imagining that 
multitudes of the zealously orthodox of different sects, who at the last day may flock 
together, in hopes of seeing each other damned, will be disappointed, and obliged to 
rest content with their own salvation." 

In another letter, addressed to Mrs. Mecom, his sister, (1758) he says, " 'Tis pity 
that good works, among some sorts of people, are so little valued, and good words 
admired in their stead . I mean seemingly pious discourses, instead of humane be- 
nevolent actions. Those they almost put out of countenance, by calling morality rotten 
morality — righteousness ragged righteousness, and even filthy rags — and when you 
mention virtue, pucker up their noses ; at the same time that the) eagerly snuff up an 
empty canting harangue, as if it was a posey of the choicest flowers." 

In a letter to * * * (1784) he observes, " There are several things in the Old Tes- 
tament impossible to be given by divine inspiration ; such as the approbation ascribe 
<ed to the angel of the Lord, of that abominably wicked and detestable action of Jaei, 
the wife of Heber, the Kenite." 



THOMAS* JEFFERSON. 

Extract of a letter from Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States, 
to Dr. Priestley, upon his 66 Comparative View ©/"Socrates and Jesus. '* 

Washington, April 9, 1803. 

Dear Sir, 

While on a short visit lately to Monticello, I received from you a copy of your Com- 
parative View of Socrates and Jesus, and I avail myself of the first moment of leisure 
after my return to acknowledge the pleasure I had in the perusal, and the desire 
it excited to see you take up the subject on a more extensive scale. — In consequence 
of some conversations with Dr. Rush in the years 1798 — 99, I had promised some day 
to write him a letter, giving him my view of the Christian system. I have reflected 
often on it since, and even sketched the outlines in my own mind. I should first take 
a general view of the moral doctrines of the most lemarkable of the ancient philoso- 
phers, of whose ethics we have sufficient information to make an estimate : say, of 
Pythagoras, Epic&us, Epicetus, Socrates, Cicero, Seneca, Antoninus. I should 



10 



INTRODUCTION. 



do justice to the branches of morality they have treated well, but point out the im- 
portance of those in which they are deficient. I should then take a view of 'the deism 
and ethics of the Jews, and show in what a degraded state they were, and the ne- 
cessity they presented of a reformation.- I should proceed to a view of the life, charac- 
ter, and doctrines of Jesus, who, sensible of the incorrectness of their ideas of the Deity, 
and of morality, endeavored to bring them- to the principles of a pure deism, and 
juster notions of the attributes of God, to reform their moral doctrines to the stand- 
ard of ^reason, justice, and. philanthropy, and to inculcate the belief of a. future state. 
This view would purposely omit the Question of his divinity, and even of his inspira- 
tion. To do him justice, it would be necessary to remark the disadvantages his doc- 
trines have to encounter, not having been committed to writing by himself, but by 
the most unlettered of men, by memory, long after they had heard them from him, 
when much was forgotten, much misunderstood, and presented in very paradoxical 
shapes, Yet such are the fragments remaining, as to show a master workman, and 
that his system of morality was the most benevolent and sublime probably that has 
been ever taught, and more perfect than those of any of the ancient philosophers. His 
character and doctrines have received still greater injury from those who pretend to 
be his spiritual disciples, and who have disfigured and sophisticated his actions and 
precepts from views of personal interest, so as to induce the unthinking part of man- 
kind to throw off the whole system in disgust, and to pass sentence as an impostor on 
fhe most innocent, the most benevolent, the most eloquent and sublime character that 
has ever been exhibited to man. This is the outline ; but I have not the time, and 
still less the information which the subject needs. It will therefore rest with me in 
contemplation only. 

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



Letter from the same to William Canby. 

Sir, 

I have duly received your favor of August 27th ; am sensible of the kind intentions 
from which it flows, and truly thankful for them, the more so, as they could only be 
the result of a favorable estimate of my public course. During a long life, as much 
devoted to study as a faithful transaction of the trusts committed to me would permit, 
no object has occupied more of my consideration than our relations with all the beings 
around us, our duties to them and our future prospects. After hearing and reading 
every thing which probably can be suggested concerning them, I have formed the best 
judgment I could, as to the course they prescribe ; and in the due observance of that 
course, I have no recollections which give me uneasiness. An eloquent preacher of 
your religious society, Richard Mott, in a discourse of much unction and pathos, is 
said to have exclaimed aloud to his congregation, that he did not believe there was a 
Quaker, Presbyterian, Methodist or Baptist in Heaven — having paused to give his 
audience time to stare and to wonder — (he said) that in Heaven, God knew no distinc- 
tion, but considered all good men, as his children and as brethren of the same family. 
I believe with the Quaker preacher, that he who steadily observes those moral 
precepts in which all religions concur, will never be questioned at the gates of Heav- 
en, as to the dogmas in which they differ | that on entering there, all these are left be- 
hind us : the Aristideses and Catos, Penns, and TiMotsons, Presbyterians and Papists, 
will find themselves united in all principles which are in concert with the reason of the 
supreme mind. Of all the systems of morality, ancient or modern, which have come 
under my observation, none appears to me so pure as that of Jesus. He who follows 
this steadily, need not, I think, be uneasy, although he cannot comprehend the subtle- 
ties and mysteries erected on his doctrines, by those who calling themselves his spe- 
cial followers and favourites, would make him come into the world to lay snares for 
all understandings but theirs ; these metaphysical heads, usurping the judgment seat 
of God, denounce as his enemies, all who cannot perceive the geometrical logic of 
Euclid in the demonstrations of St. Athanasius, that three are one, and one is three, 
and yet that three are not one, nor the one three. In all essential points, you and I 
are of the same religion, and I am too old to go into inquiries and changes as to the 
inessentials. Repeating therefore my thankfulness for the kind concern you have 
peen so good as to express, I salute you with friendship and brotherly love. 

THOMAS JEFFERSON 

JKonticello, September 17th, 1813. 



INTRODUCTION. 



11 



BONAPARTE. 

By the Report of Las Casas, the authenticity of which is not doubted, Bonaparte, 
who, whatever may be thought of his goodness, is allowed by all to be a great man, 
made the following remarks on religion. / " Every thing proclaims the existence of a 
God; that cannot be questioned ; but all religions are evidently the work of men. 
Why are there so many 1 Why has not ours always existed 1 Why does it consider 
itself exclusively the right One ? ; What becomes, in that case, of all. the virtuous men 
who have gone before us T Why does these religions oppose and exterminate one 
another 1 Why has this been the case ever and every where 1 Because men are ever 
men ; because priests have ever and every where introduced fraud and falsehood." 
He said, " that his incredulity did not proceed from perverseness or from licentiousness 
of mind, but from the strength of his reason. Yet," added he, " no man can an- 
swer for what will happen, particularly in his last moments. At present, I certainly 
believe that I shall die without a confessor. I am assuredly very far from being an 
atheist, but I cannot believe all that I am taught in spite of my reason, without being 
false and a hypocrite." 

The bare mention of the possibility that he might, before he died, confess his sins, 
with a view of obtaining pardon from a frail mortal like himself, wss unworthy of 
the character of Bonaparte. But it exemplifies in the strongest manner the almost 
unconquerable power of habits and prejudices acquired in early life. If, at the time 
the above expressions were made, there still remained in the great mind of Bonaparte 
some lirgering vestiges of the contemptible prejudices which he had imbibed from his 
nurse and father confessor in childhood, what can be expected from the multitude 
who never think 1 How important then is it, that the minds of youth should be prop- 
erly directed ; — -that they should be taught their true condition in nature ; — that their 
present and future happiness depends, not on confessions to a priest, but on uniform 
practice of moral virtue. If confessions are depended on, we may be assured, that 
morals will be neglected. 



LORD ERSKINE. 

The following opinion of the manner in which mankind will be judged in a future 
state must be concurred in by every rational being, not under clerical influence. It is 
extracted from the speech of the famous Irish barrister, Erskine, on the liberty of the 
press, in the trial of Stockdale for an alleged libel against the parliament. 

" Every human tribunal ought to take care to administer justice, as we look here- „ 
after to have justice administered to ourselves. Upon the principles on which the 
Attorney-General prays sentence upon my client — God have mercy upon us ! — For 
which of us can present, for omniscient examination, a pure, unspotted, and faultless 
course. But I humbly expect that the benevolent author of our being will judge us 
as I have been pointing out for your example. Holding up the great volume of our 
lives in his hands, and regarding the gener al scope of them. If he discovers benevo- 
lence, charity and good will to man beating in the heart, where he alone can look ; — 
if he finds that our conduct, though often forced out of the path by our infirmities, has 
been in general well directed ; his all-searching eye will assuredly never pursue us 
into those little corners of our lives, much less will his justice select them for punish- 
ment, without the general context of our existence, by which faults may be sometimes 
found to have grown out of virtues, and very many of our heaviest offences to have 
been grafted by human imperfection upon the best and kindest of our affections. NS, 
believe me, this is not the course of divine justice. If the general tenor of a man's 
conduct be such as I have represented it, he may walk through the shadow of death, 
with all his faults about him, with as much cheerfulness as in the common paths of 
life ; because he knows, that instead of a stern accuser to expose before the Author 
of his nature, those frail passages, which like the scored matter in the book before 
you, chequers the volume of the brightest and best spent life, his mercy will obscure 
them from the eye of his purity, and our repentance blot them out for ever. M 



MR. OWEN. 

This gentleman is not so universally known as to render his opinions so imposing 
as those already quoted, but hp has acquired such celebrity for philanthropy ra 



n 



INTRODUCTION. 



his extraordinary exertions to meliorate the condition of the poor, in which charitable 
work he is now zealously engaged, that I am induced to give his rational views re- 
specting religion, in answer to a correspondent of the Limerick Chronicle. 

" For nearly forty years,'*' he says, " I have studied the religious systems of the 
world, with the most sincere desire to discover one that was devoid of error ; one to 
which my mind and soul could consent ; but the more I have examined the faiths and 
practices which they have produced, the more error in each has been made manifest 
to me, and I am now prepared to say that all, without a single exception, contain too 
much error to be of any utility in die present advanced state of the human mind. 
There are truths in each religion, as well as errors in all, but if I have not been toe 
much prejudiced by early education and surrounding circumstances, to judge impar- 
tially between them, there are more valuable truths in the Christian Scriptures than 
m others— but a religion to be pure and undefiled, and to produce the proDer effect 
upon the life and conduct of every human being, and to become universal, must be so 
true, that all who run may read, and so reading may fully comprehend. A religion 
of this character must be devoid of forms, ceremonies and mysteries, for these con- 
stitute the errors of all the existing systems, and of all those w : hich have hitherto cre- 
ated anger, and produced violence and bloodshed throughout society. A religion de- 
void of error will not depend for its support upon any name whatever. No name, 
not even Deity itself, cm make truth into falsehood.~A pure and genuine religion, 
therefore, will not require for its support, or for its universal promulgation by the 
human race, any name whatever, nor ought, except the irresistible truth which it 
shall contain. Such religion will possess whatever is valuable in each, and exclude 
whatever is erroneous in all, and in due time, a religion of this character, freed from 
every inconsistency, shall be promulgated. Then will the world be in possession of 
principles which, without any exception, produce corresponding practices, then all 
shall see, face to face, clearly and distinctly, and no longer through a glass, darkly* 
In the mean time, however, while the dangers shall be gradually working in the 
minds of those who have been compelled to receive error mixed with troth, it is in- 
tended that no violence shall be offered to the conscience of any one, and that in the 
proposed new villages, full provisions shall be made for the performance of religious 
worship, according to the practice of the country in which the viUage.3 shall be situated* 



ELIAS HICKS. 

Elias Hicks, a celebrated Quaker preacher, at New-York, in a Tetter addressed to 
the Rev. Dr. Shoemaker, dated 3d mo. 31, 1823, speaking of the atonement, and 
those who believe in it, writes, " Surely, is it possible that any rational being, that 
has any -right sense of justice and mercy, would be willing to accept forgiveness of his 
sins on such terms 1 Would he not go forward, and offer himself wholly up, to suffer 
all the penalties due to his crimes, rather than the innocent should suffer 1 Nay, w T as 
he so hardy as to acknowledge a willingness to be saved through such a medium, 
would it not prove that he stood in direct opposition to every principle of justice and 
honesty, of mercy and love, and show himself a poor selfish creature, unworthy of 
notice V' Towards the conclusion of his letter, he says, e * I may now recommend 
thee to shake off all traditional views that thou hast imbibed from external evidence, 
and turn thy mind to the light within, as the only true teacher ; and wait patiently 
* for its instructions, and it will teach thee more than men or books can do, and lead 
thee to a clearer sight and sense of what thou desirest to know, than I have word* 
clearly to convey to thee." 

In his' discourses the following sentiments have been noted and published ; ft That die 
death of Jems Christ was no more to us than the death of any other good man ; 
that he merely performed his part on earth as a faithful son, just as any other roan 
had done ; that he did not believe any thing contained in the Scriptures merely be- 
cause it was in them ; that although the miracles might have been a proof to those 
who saw them, yet they could be no proof to us who did not see them. Is it possible, 
■aid he, that there is any person so ignorant or superstitious, as to believe, that there 
ever was on earth such a place as the garden of Eden, or that Adam and Eve were 
really put into it, and turned out of it for eating an apple 1 My friends, it is all an 
allegory." 

Mr. Hicks, I understand, is far advanced in life, and is a great favourite, as a 
preacher, not only among his own sect, but with others of different denominations 



INTRODUCTION. 



He is said to be a man of the strictest morals. His doctrine is void of trifling pueril- 
ities, and disgusting hypocrisy, the greatest impediment to human improvement. It 
is plain, honest, common sense. Such as one would suppose would be adopted by all 
people, not burdened with an expensive priesthood. — Hired priests, no doubt, consid- 
er themselves in a measure bound to deal out to their hearers a great deal of school 
divinity, consisting of perplexing metaphysics, in order to convince them that they 
get the worth of their money. Plain morality would not command a high price 
among those who are in search of mysteries, miracles and spiritual nonentities. 

Religionists seem to think that there can be no religion unattended with mystery 
and miracle. They require a name to uphold their religion ; and the person who 
bears it must have performed miracles to entitle him to their respect. The simple 
principles of moral virtue have no charms for them. Their religion must be involved 
in clouds and darkness,1o make it difficult to be understood, in order to enhance the 
merit of believing it. Such a scheme, as they call it, of religion is well adapted to 
priestcraft, because it gives the high priests of the establishment an opportunity to 
play off a sort of necromancy to deceive and gull the multitude. It would require no 
ministers, with high salaries, to explain the plain creed of Dr. Franklin. It does 
not require, like complicated and mysterious religions to be taught, as a school boy is 
taught grammar. 

The morality contained in what is called the gospel, unconnected with the Old 
Testament, is unexceptionable. It is the doctrine of Deism ; as Dr. Tindal has 
shown, in his work, entitled, ec Christianity as old as the Creation, or the Gospel a 
republication of the religion of nature. " The same sentiments, however, had been 
promulgated long before the gospel had existence. Confucius, the Chinese phloso- 
pher, who was born 551 years before Christ, said, " Human nature came to us from 
heaven pure and perfect ; but in process of time, ignorance, the passions, and evil 
examples have corrupted it. — All consists in restoring it to its primitive beauty ; and 
to be perfect, we must reascend to that point we have fallen from. Obey heaven, and 
follow the orders of Him who governs it. Love your neighbour as yourself ; let your 
reason, and not your senses be the rule of your conduct ; for reason will teach you to 
think wisely, to speak prudently, and to behave yourself worthily on all occasions. 
Do to another what you would he should do unto you ; and do not unto another what 
you would should not be done unto you ; thou only needest this law alone ; it is the 
foundation and principle of all tne rest. 

" Desire not the death of thine enemy ; thou wouldst desire it in vain ; his life is 
in the hands of Heaven. 

" Acknowledge thy benefits by the return of other benefits, but never revenge in- 
juries." 

In the precepts of Phocylides, written 540 years before Christ, we find the 
following : " Let no favour or affection bias thy judgment ; reject not the poor ; nor 
judge any man rashly ; for if thou doest, God will judge thee hereafter." 

" Give not thy alms to the poor with grudging, nor put him oft till to-morrow ; 
have compassion on the man that is banished, and be eyes to the blind." 

" Show mercy to those that are shipwrecked; for the sea, like fortune, is a fair, 
but fickle mistress. Comfort the man that is dejected; and be a friend to him that 
has no one to help him. We are all liable to misfortunes, up to day, and down to- 
morrow." 

In what are called the Golden Verses of Pythagoras, who died 497 years be- 
fore Christ, we read as follows, <e Do not an ill thing, either in company, or alone ; 
but of all respect yourself first ; that is, first pay the duty which is due to yourself, to 
your honour and to your conscience ; nor let any foreign regard make you deviate 
from this faith." 

" Presume not to sleep till you have thrice ran over the actions of the past day. 
Examine yourself, where have I been 1 What have I done 1 Have I omitted any- 
good action 1 Then weigh all, and correct yourself for what you have done amiss j 
and rejoice in what you have done well." 

" Whatever evils thou mayest undergo, bear them patiently, endeavoring to discov- 
er a remedy. And let this reflection console thee, that fate does not distribute much 
of evil to good men. 

" Men apply the art of reasoning to good and bad purposes ; listen, therefore, with 
caution, and be not hasty to admit or reject. If any one assert an untruth, arm thy- 
self with patience, and be silent. 

M When this habit has become familiar to thee, thou wilt perceive the constitution 
of the immortal Gods, and of mortal men ; even the great extent of being, and in 
V 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

what manner it exists. Thou wilt perceive that nature in her operations is uniform, 
and thou will expect only what is possible. Thou wilt perceive that mankind will- 
ingly draw upon themselves evil. They neither see nor understand what it is wise 
to prefer ; and when entangled, are ignorant of the means of escape. Such is the 
destiny of man. They are subjected to evils without end, and are agitated incessant- 
ly, like roiling stones. A fatal contention ever secretly pursues them, which they 
neither endeavor to subdue, nor yield to 

" Great Jove ! Father of Men ! O free them from those evils, or discover to them 
the demon they employ ! But be of good cheer, for the race of man is divine. Na- 
ture discovers to them her hidden mysteries, in which if thou art interested, and at- 
tain this knowledge, thou wilt obtain with ease, all I enjoin ; and having healed thy^ 
soul, thou wilt preserve it from evil. 

£< Abstain, moreover, from those unclean and foul meats, which are forbidden, 
keeping thy body pure, and thy soul free. 

" Consider all things well, governing thyself by reason, and settling it in the up- 
permost place. And when thou at^t divested of thy mortal body, and arHved'in 
the most pure cether, thou shalt be exalted among the immortal Gods, be incor- 
ruptible, and never more know death." 

Laurence Sterne, in his Coran, says, * I had conceived, that to love our enemies 
was a tenet peculiar to the Christian religion, till I stumbled upon the same idea in 
the writings of that rogue Plato." And it seems that the rogue Pythagoras, as well 
as Plato and others, taught the doctrine of immortality long before its promulgation 
in the gospel, although the merit of it is ascribed exclusively to Jesus by many of his 
followers. 

Quotations to the same effect might be made from the writings of Socrates, Plato, 
Cicero, and others, who lived anterior to the time of Jesus Christ. In fact, it seems 
apparent, that the moral sentiments contained in the gospel, have been derived from 
philosophers who lived at periods remote from the time of its promulgation. The 
morals of Epictetus, Seneca, and Antoninus, whom christians call heathens, are not 
inferior to those of the gospel. Antoninus observes, " It is the peculiar excellence 
of man to love even those who have offended him. This you will be disposed to do, 
if j T ou reflect that the offender is allied to you ; that he did it through ignorance, and, 
perhaps involuntarily ; and, moreover, that you will both soon go peaceably to your 
graves. But above all, consider, that he has not really injured you, as he could not 
render yoor mind, or governing part, the worse for his offence. 

" A man may be more expert than you in the gymnastic exercises ; be it so ; yet he 
is not superior to you in the social virtues, in generosity, in modesty, in patience under 
the accidents of life, or lenity towards the foibles of mankind." 

Moral principles are the same in all countries, and at all times. Neither time nor 
place can change them. 

Although sects were formed under the names of some of "the ancient philosophers, 
which caused great disputations among the disciples of the respective leaders, it does 
not appear that they were carried on with such rancor towards each other, as those 
which have distinguished the followers of men who have given names to various de- 
nominations of christians. Among these, at least, reason has been perverted by a 
blind zeal to support the favourite dogmas of spiritual guides, and Christendom has 
been kept in turmoil, for 1800 years, by the ranglings and persecutions of sectarians. 

When philosophers speak favourably of the morality of the gospel, they are far 
from vindicating the cruelties committed in the name of its founder, or the arrogant 
pretensions of its ministers. In fact, they evidently do it as a salvo against persecu- 
tion for their unbelief in its divinity, and their disapprobation of the vindictive spirit 
of its supporters. 

The following are the only books of note which are esteemed by the Yarioos nations 
of the eardi as of divine origin. 

Shu-King, or sacred book, of the Chinese. 

Yajur Veda, or holy book, of the East Indians. 

Bible of the Christians, and Koran of the Mahometans. 

Which of these contain the best or most practical system of morals it might be dif- 
ficult to determine. But, as the cause of cruelties in the destruction of the human 
species, I will venture to say, that the Bible stands pre-eminent and unrivalled. Mil- 
lions have been sacrificed, under both the Jewish and Christian economy, with the 
false and wicked pretext of honouring the Deity by the inforcement of ridiculous creeds, 
rights and ceremonies. In the trifling and foolish affair of the molten calf alone, as 
recorded in the 32d chap, of Exodus, about three thousand men are said to have been 



INTRODUCTION. 



15 



put to death to appease the pretended jealousy of the Supreme Creator ot trie Uni- 
verse. This, and hundreds of other passages that might be cited from the Bible, form 
a striking contrast with that tolerant spirit of the Koran, in which it is said, " If God 
had pleased, he had surely made you one people ; but he hath thought fit to give you 
different laws, that he might try you in that which he hath given you respectively. 
Therefore strive to excel each other in good works ; unto God shall you all return, 
and then will he declare unto you that concerning which ye have differed." — Koran, 
chap. 5. 

I will here insert a concise history of occurrences under the gospel dispensation in 
Spain, as a sample of what has, and ever will take place, wherever ministers of re- 
ligion bear sway in government. This I take from a statement, which has recently 
appeared, of the number of victims to that terrible engine of superstition, cruelty and 
death, the Inquisition ; the bare recital of which chills the blood, and fills the mind 
with horrid images of suffering humanity under the most excrutiating tortures, which 
awful depravity, disguised in the robes of religion, could invent. The table is ex- 
tracted from a Critical History of that dreadful tribunal, by J. A. Lorente, one of its 
late secretaries, and may therefore be considered as indisputably authentic. It ex- 
hibits a detailed list of the respective numbers who have suffered various kinds of 
punishment and persecution in the Peninsula alone, independent of those who have 
been its victims in other parts of the world, for a period of 356 years, viz. from 1452 
to 1808, during which the Inquisition has existed, under the administration of 44 In- 
quisitors General. Within, that term it appears that in Spain have been burnt 31,718, 
died in prison or escaped by flight and were burnt in effigy, 174,111, and suffered 
other punishments, such as whipping, imprisonment, &c. 287,522, making a grand 
total of 336,651. The greatest number of victims under any administration, was in 
that of Torquemada, the first Inquistor General, who presided from 1452 to 1499, a 
*ong and bloody reign of 47 years, during which 8,800 victims were burnt, 6,400 died 
or escaped by flight, and 90,094 suffered various other punishments $ being in the 
whole, 105,294, or 2,240 per annum ! 

The use of this horrid instrument of slaughter was abolished by the Cortes ; but is 
about to be reinstated under the rule of the heaven-born Ferdinand. The consequen- 
ces of which may be anticipated by the tenor of the following Decree, issued at Mad- 
rid, Oct. 13, 18^3. 

" In casting my eyes (says his Majesty) on the Most High who had deigned to 
deliver me from so many dangers, and to lead me back as it were by the hand among 
my faithful subjects, I experience a feeling of horror when I recollect all the sacrifices, 
all the crimes which the impious have dared to commit against the Sovereign Creator 
of the Universe. 

" The Ministers of Religion have been persecuted and sacrificed — the venerable 
successor of St. Peter has been insulted — the temples of the Lord profaned and des- 
troyed — the Holy Gospel trodden under foot — lastly, the inestimable inheritance 
which Jesus Christ left us, the right of his Holy Supper, to assure us of his love, and 
of our eternal felicity, the sacred Hosts, have been trampled under foot. My soul 
cannot be at rest till united to my beloved subjects, we shall offer to God pious sac- 
rifices that he may deign to purify by his grace the soil of Spain from so many stains. 
In order that objects of such importance should be attained, I have resolved that in all 
places in my dominion, the tribunals, the Juntas, and all public bodies, shall implore 
the clemency of the Almighty in favour of the nation, and that the Arch bishops ^Bish- 
ops and Capitular Vicars of vacant Sees, the Priors of Orders, and all those who ex- 
ercise ecclesiastical jurisdiction, shall prepare missions, which shall exert themselves 
to destroy erroneous, pernicious, and heretical doctrines, and shut up in the monaster- 
ies, of which the rules are the most rigid, those ecclesiastios, who have been the agents 
of an impious faction. 

" Sealed by my Royal hand !" 

A Royal hand bathed in blood ; the witness of innumerable perjuries. — Tlie pious 
sacrifices to be offered to God are human victims : the best blood of Spain — Riego, 
&c. Good heavens ! is it possible that the enlightened reason of man will long sub- 
mit to be imposed upon by the canting of such vile, infamous wretches as Ferdinand 
the Seventh 1 

In the opinion of such blotches on the human character, the belief in mysteries and 
miracles, and the performance of the idle ceremonies ordained by the Church, are 
sufficient to atone for all sins, and that morals, in comparison, are of no value. 



16 



INTRODUCTION. 



Christianity, as taught and practised by theologians and their adherents, is so ao 
curately described in a letter on superstition, addressed to the people of England, by 
the celebrated William Pitt, (afterwards Earl of Chatham, and Prime Minister of 
Great Britain,) that I am induced to give it entire. It was first printed in the Lon- 
don Journal in 1733. 

LETTER OF WILLIAM PITT. 

" Pure Religion and undejiled before God and the Father, is this : to visit the 
Fatherless and Widows in their afflictions, and to keep one's self unspotted from 
the World." 

Gentlemen, whoever takes a view of the world, will find, that what the greatest 
part of mankind have agreed to call religion, has been only some outward exercise I 
esteemed sufficient to work a reconciliation with God. It has moved them to build i 
temples, flay victims, offer up sacrifices, to fast and feast, to petition and thank, to 
laugh and cry, to sing and sigh by turns ; but it has not yet been found sufficient to i 
induce them to break off an armour, to ;make restitution of ill-gotten wealth, or to 
bring the passions and appetites to a reasonable subjection. Differ as much as they ; 
may in opinion, concerning what they ought to believe, or after what manner they 
are to serve God, as they call it, yet they all agree in gratifying their appetites. The i 
same passions reign eternally in all countries and in all ages, Jew and Mahometan, 
the Christian and the Pagan, the Tartar and the Indian, all kinds of men who differ j 
in almost every thing else, universally agree with regard to their passions; if there 
be any difference among them it is this, that the more superstitious, the more vicious j 
they always are, and the more they believe, the less they practise. This is a mel- 
ancholy consideration to a good mind ; it is a truth, and certainly above all things, 
worth our while to inquire into. We will, therefore, probe the wound, and search to 
the bottom ; we will lay the axe to the root of the tree, and show you the true reason I 
why men go on in sinning and repenting, and sinning again through the whole course 
of their lives ; and the reason is, because they have been taught, most wickedly taught, 
that religion and virtue are two things absolutely distinct ; that the deficiency of the ; I 
one, might be supplied by the sufficiency of the other ; and that what you want in 
virtue, you must make up in religion. But this religion, so dishonourable to God, 
and so pernicious to men, is worse than Atheism, for Atheism, though it takes away 
Oiie great motive to support virtue in distress, yet it furnishes no, man with arguments j 
to be vicious ; but superstition or what the world means by religion is the greatest 
possible encouragement to vice v by setting up something as religion, which shall atone ; 
and commute for the want of virtue. This is establishing iniquity by a law, the high- j 
est law ; by authority, the highest authority ; that of God himself. We complain of 
the vices of the world, and of the wickedness of men, without searching into the true 
cause. It is not because they are wicked by nature, for that is both false and im- 
pious ; but because to serve the purposes of their pretended soul savers, they have 
been carefully taught that they are wicked by nature, and cannot help continuing so. 
It would have been impossible for men to have been both religious and vicious, had 
religion been made to consist wherein alone it does consist ; and had they been al- 
ways taught that true religion is the practice of virtue in obedience to the will of God, 
who presides over all things, and will finally make every man happy who does his 
duty. 

This single opinion in religion, that all things are so well made by the Deity, that ! 
virtue is its own reward, and that happiness will ever arise from acting according to 
the reason of things, or that God, ever wise and good, will provide some extraordi- 
nary happiness for those who suffer for virtue's sake, is enough to support a man un- j 
d^r all difficulties, to keep him steady to his duty, and to enable him to stand as firm as 
a rock, amidst all the charms of applause, profit, and honour. But this religion of 
reason, which all men are capable of, has been neglected and condemned, and another 
get up, the natural consequences of which have puzzled men's understandings, and de- 
bauched their morals, more than all the lewd poets and atheistical philosophers, that 
ever infested the world ; for instead of being taught that religion consists in action, 
or obedience to the eternal moral law of God, we have been most gravely and vener- 
ably told that it consists in the belief of certain opinions which we could form no idea 
of, or which were contrary to the clear perceptions of our minds, or which had no 
tendency to make us either wiser or better, or which is much worse, had a manifest 
tendency to make us wicked and immoral. And this belief, this impious belief, aris- 



INTRODUCTION. 



ing from imposition on one side, and from want of examination on the other, has been 
called by the sacred name of religion, whereas real and genuine religion consists in 
knowledge and obedience. We know there is a God, and know his will, which is, 
that we should do all the good we can ; and we are assured from his perfections, that 
we shall find our own good in so doing. 

And what would we have more 1 are we, after such inquiry, and in an age full of 
liberty, children still ? and cannot we be quiet unless we have holy romances, sacred 
fables, and traditionary tales to amuse us in an idle hour, and to give rest to our 
souls, when our follies and vices will not suffer us to rest 1 

You have been taught, indeed, that right belief, or orthodoxy, will, like charity, 
cover a multitude of sins ; but be not deceived, belief of, or mere assent to the truth 
of propositions upon evidence is not a virtue, nor unbelief a vice ; faith is not a volun- 
tary act, does not depend upon the will ; every man must believe or disbelieve., 
whether he will or not, according as the evidence appears to him. If, therefore, 
men, however dignified or distinguished, command us to believe, they are guilty of 
the highest folly and absurdity, because it is out of our power ; but if they command 
us to believe, and annex rewards to belief, and severe penalties to unbelief, then they 
are most wicked and immoral, because they annex rewards and punishments to what 
is involuntary, and, therefore, neither re ward able nor punishable. It appears, then, 
very plainly unreasonable and unjust to command us to believe any doctrine, good or 
bad, wise or unwise ; but, when men command us to believe opinions, which have no 
tendency to promote virtue, but which are allowed to commute or atone s for the want 
of it, then they are arrived at the utmost pitch of impiety, then is their iniquity full ; 
then have they finished the misery, and completed the destruction of poor mortal man ; 
by betraying the interest of virtue, they have undermined and sapped the foundation 
of all human happiness ; and how treacherously and dreadfully have they betrayed it! 
A gift, well applied, the chattering of some unintelligible sounds called creeds ; an 
unfeigned assent and consent to whatever the church enjoins, religious worship and 
consecrated feasts ; repenting on a death-bed ; pardons rightly sued out ; and abso- 
lution authoritatively given, have done more towards making and continuing men vi- 
cious, than all the natural passions and infidelity put together ; for infidelity can only 
take away the supernatural rewards of virtue ; but these superstitious opinions and: 
practices, have not only turned the scene, and made men lose sight of the natural re- 
wards of it, but have induced them to think, that were there no hereafter, vice would 
be preferable to virtue, and that they increase in happiness as they increase in wick- 
edness ; and this they have been taught in several religious discourses and sermons, 
delivered by men whose authority was never doubted, particularly by a late Rev. 
prelate, I mean Bishop Atterbury, in his sermon on these words, " If in this life only 
be hope, then we are of all men the most miserable," where vice and faith ride most 
lovingly and triumphantly together. But these doctrines of the natural excellency of 
vice, the efficacy of a right belief, the dignity of atonements and propitiations, have 
beside depriving us of the native beauty and charms of honesty, and thus cruelly stab- 
bing virtue to the heart, raised and diffused among men a certain unnatural passion, 
which we shall call a religious hatred ; a hatred constant, deep-rooted, and immortal. 
All other passions rise and fall, die and revive again, but this of religious and pious 
hatred rises and grows every day stronger upon the mind as we grow more religious, 
because we hate for God's sake, and for the sake of those poor souls too, who have 
the misfortune not to believe as we do ; and can we in so good a cause hate too much 1 
the more thoroughly we hate, the better we are ; and the more mischief we do to the 
bodies and states of these infidels and heretics, the more do we show our love to God. 
This is religious zeal, and this has been called divinity ; but remember, the only true 
divinity is humanity. 

W. PITT. 



Against such a scheme of fraud and imposition, as faithfully delineated by Mr. Pitt, 
has Thomas Paine entered his protest ; and those who make a trade of the delusion, 
as well as those who are duped by it, denounce him as an impious man ! And he, 
in reply, might have exclaimed, in the language of Lequinto, before cited. 

" I am an impious man, my dear reader ; and I tell the truth to every man, which is 
perhaps still worse. Four years are scarcely elapsed, since the follies of the Sorbonne, 
and the furies of despotism," might have raised a btorm, which would have burst upon 
my head < they would have smitten me. like a destructive monster, an assassin of 
jiQ human race, a perturbator, a traitor. Each of those colossal phantoms has di&» 



15 



INTRODUCTION. 



appeared before the eye of reason, and the august image of liberty ; however, an in- 
finite number of prejudices, personal interest, and hypocrisy, all of them no less the ty- 
rants, and the enemies of knowledge, still dwell among us. 

There still remains at the bottom of thy heart, at the bottom of thy own heart, the 
prejudices of thy infancy, the -lessons of thy nurse, and the opinions of thy first in- 
structors, which are the effects of that renunciation of thought which thou hast prac- 
tised all the days of thy life, from the cradle upwards ! In addition to this, it is the 
interest of every one to keep thee in total blindness. The rich and powerful man 
dreads lest thou shouldst open thy eyes, and perceive that his strength and grandeur 
proceed from thy ignorance and submission. The vain man, with equality in his 
heart, fears lest thou shouldst discover the absurdity of his pretensions to superiority ; 
the hypocrite, who terms himself the representative of the divinity, and the messenger 
of heaven, trembles lest thou shouldst begin to reflect, for, from that moment his credit 
and his authority are at an end. He eats and drinks at his leisure; he sleeps with- 
out care ; he walks about in order to procure an appetite ; he enjoys the price of 
thy labours in peace ; thou payest for his pleasures, his subsistence, and even for his 
sleep. But, wert thou to begin to reason, thoH wouldst soon perceive thy error ; thou 
wouldst touch the phantom, and it would instantly vanish ; thou wouldst discover that 
he is an useless parasite, and that all his authority reposes on thy foolish credulity, 
thy weakness, thy chimerical fears, and the ridiculous hopes which he has taken care 
to inspire thee with, ever since thou earnest into existence. Perhaps thy very wife is 
interested to dece-ive thee, on purpose to sanctify her connexions with the representa- 
tive of the divinity, who renounces the holy laws of nature, because he spares himself, 
at one and the same time, the uneasiness and the duties of paternity ! 

These will excite thy passjons, arm thy heart, and call up thy hatred against my 
lessons and my doctrine ; for 1 am an impious being, who neither believe in saints 
nor in miracles ; I am an impious being, who would drink wine in the midst of Turks 
at Constantinople, who would eat pork with the Jews, and die flesh of a tender lamb 
or a fat pullet among the Christians on a Friday, even within the palace of a Pope, 
or beneath the roof of the Vatican. I am an impious man, for I firmly believe that 
three are more tiian one ; that the whole is greater than one of its parts ; tnat a body 
cannot exist in a thousand places at one and the same moment, and be entire in a 
thousand detached portions of itself. 

I am an impious man, for I never believe on the word of another, whatever contra- 
dicts my own reason ; and if a thousand doctor* of the law should tell me, that they 
had seen a sparrow devour an ox in a quarter of an hour, or take the carcase in its 
bill, and carry it to its nest in order to feed its young, were they even to swear by 
their surplices, their sloles, or their square bonnets, they would still find me in- 
credulous ! 

I am an knpious man, for I do not believe that anointing the tips of the fingers 
with oil, wearing the ecclesiastical tonsure, or cutting the hair, that the being cloth- 
ed in a black cassock, or a violet robe, and carrying a mitre on the head, and a 
cross in the hand, can render an ignorant fellow able to work miracles. 

In short, my brother, I must be an impious man, since my conduct has no other 
regulator than my conscience; since I myself have no other principle, than the de- 
sire of public happiness, and no other divinity than virtue. Thou must necessarily 
hate me, for it is a great crime to think and to believe otherwise than thyself! 

But have I committed murder or carnage, theft, rapine, evil speaking, calumny 1 
have I taught the art of deceiving men 1 have I insinuated a spirit of vengeance ? 
have I inculcated despotism on the part of the great, and slavery on that of the 
humble 1 

No — on the contrary, I have pointed out the road to truth ; I have proved to thee, 
that thy happiness consists in virtue ; I have proved to thee, that thou hast hitherto 
been the dupe of those who fatten upon thy substance, and bathe themselves in thy 
sweat, and that all thy unhappiness arises from thy credulity, thy habitual hatred to 
reflection, and thy pusillanimity. Are these crimes 1 I am not guilty of any other. 

Whoever thou art, thy friendship is precious to me ; whether thou be Christian, 
Mahomedan, Jew, Indian, Persian, Tartar, or Chinese, art thou not a man, and am 
not I thy brother ? Tolerate, therefore, an impious man, who has never laboured but 
for the good of others, and who now labours for thine, at die very moment when thou 
wishest to persecute him." 

As the character and habits of Thomas Paine have been grossly misrepresented by 
those who either knew little or nothing of him, or were utterLy regardless of truth, * 



INTRODUCTION. 



39 



shall here introduce an extract of a letter on that subject from Joel Barlow to James 
Cheetham, a notorious libeller of Mr. Paine. Mr. Barlow must have been well ac- 
quainted with Mr. Paine in France, as they were fellow -labourers in the great, cause 
of human emancipation ; and his sound principles, his moral and literary standing-, 
are sufficient guarantees for the correctness of his statement of facts that came under 
his immediate observation. It is, however, apparent, that a part of his communica- 
tion is founded on misinformation ; which I shall endeavour to demonstrate. 

JOEL BARLOW TO JAMES CHEETHAM. 

« Sir, — I have received your letter, calling for information relative to the life ot 
Thomas Paine. It appears to me, that this is not the moment to publish the life of that 
man in this country.* His own writings are his best life, and these are not read at 
present. 

[After noticing the unfavourable impressions which fanatics and political 
enemies of Mr. P. had infused into the minds of a portion of the public to 
wards him, Mr. Barlow proceeds.'] 

The writer of his life, who should dwell on these topics, to the exclusion of the 
great and estimable traits of his real character, might indeed, please the rabble of the 
age, who do not know him ; the book might sell ; but it would only tend to render the 
truth more obscure for the future biographer, than it was before. 

But if the present writer would give us Thomas Paine complete, in all his character, 
as one of the most benevolent and disinterested of mankind, endowed with the clear- 
est perception, an uncommon share of original genius, and the greatest breadth of 
thought ; if this piece of biography should analyse his literary labors, and rank him, 
as he ought to be ranked, among the brightest and most undeviating luminaries of the 
age in which he has lived — yet with a mind assailable by flattery, and receiving 
through that weak side a tincture of vanity which he was too proud to conceal ; with 
a mind, though strong enough to bear him up, and to rise elastic under the heaviest 
hand of oppression, yet unable to endure the contempt of his former friends and fellow- 
laborers, the rulers of the country that had received his first and greatest services — 
a mind incapable of looking down with serene compassion, as it ought, on the rude 
scoffs of their imitators, a new generation that knows him not — if you are disposed 
and prepared to write his life thus entire, to fill up the picture to which these hasty 
strokes of outlines give but a rude sketch with great vacuities, your book may be a 
useful one. 

The biographer of Thomas Paine, should not forget his mathematical acquirements, 
and his mechanical genius. His invention of the iron-bridge, which led him to 
Europe in the year 1787, has procured him a great reputation in that branch of science 
in France and England, in both which countries his bridge has been adopted in many 
instances, and is now much in use. 

You ask whether he took an oath of allegiance to France. Doubtless the qualifi- 
cation to be a member of the convention, required an oath of fidelity to that country, 
but involved in it no abjuration of his fidelity to this. He was made a. French 
citizen by the same decree with Washington, Hamilton, Priestley, and Sir James 
Mackintosh. 

You ask what company he kept — he always frequented the best, both in England 
and France, till he became the object of calumny in certain American papers, (echoes 
of the English court papers,) for his adherence to what he thought the cause of liberty 
in France — till he conceived himself neglected by his former friends in the United 
States. From that moment he gave himself very much to drink, and consequently to 
companions less worthy of his oetter days. 

It is said he was always a peevish inmate — this is possible. So was Laur nee 
Sterne, so was Torquato Tasso, so was J. /. Rousseau; but Thomas Paine, s a 
visiting acquaintance, and as a literary friend, the only points of view in whi h I 
knew him, was one of the most instructive men I have ever known. He had a sur- 
prising memory and brilHant fancy ; his mind was a store house of facts and useful 
observations ; he was full of lively anecdote, and ingenious original pertinent re- 
mark, upon almost every subject. 

He was always charitable to the poor beyond his means, a sure protector and 
friend to all Americans in distress that he found in foreign countries. And he had 
frequent occasions to exert his influence in protecting them during the revolution in 



* America. 



20 



INTRODUCTION. 



France. His writings will answer for his patriotism, and his entire devotion to what 
he conceived to be the best interest and happiness of mankind. 

And as to his religion, as it is that of most of the men of science of the pres- 
ent age, and probably of three fourths of those of the last, there can be no just 
reason for making it an exception in him. 

This, sir, is all I have to remark on the subject you mention 
Kolarama, August 11, 1809. 

REMARKS. 

Mr. Baraow seems to have entertained erroneous opinions in regard to the treat- 
ment of Mr. Paine in America. He was received by the ruler, or first magis- 
trate of the country. Thomas Jefferson, with the utmost respect and friendship. — He 
was invited by him to return to the United States ; and on being asked if ,he had 
done so, replied, " I have, and when he arrives, if there be an office in my gift, suit- 
able for him to fill, I will give it to him ; — I will never abandon old friends to make 
room for new ones. 55 A friendly correspondence between these two distinguished 
philanthropists was maintained till the close of Mr. Paine 5 s life. I am also well as- 
sured, that the heads of departments and members of congress paid Mr. Paine the 
utmost respect, during his residence at the city of Washington; and, on his arrival ia 
New York, a public dinner was given to him, at which about one hundred respectable 
citizens attended. The most distinguished literary characters paid him every atten- 
tion, and the mayor of the city gave him an unlimited invitation to visit him, when- 
ever he found it Convenient. But Mr. Paine secluded himself very much from socie- 
ty ; he courted no favours, and he never was in the habit of giving entertainments, the J 
means commonly employed to attract the attention of the fashionable world. A friend 
of his, about to accompany him on a visit to a gentleman of great scientific acquirements, 
took the liberty of suggesting to him the propriety of being more particular in his ap- 
pearance ; to which he replied, " let those dress that need it. 55 Showing thereby 
his contempt of the art and management by which those of little or no merit acquire 
respect. 

Mr. Paine, to be sure, was abused by editors of papers unfriendly to democracy, j 
So w r as Dr. Franklin, so was Thomas Jefferson, so was Joel Barlow. If Mr. Paine 
had been treated with respect, or even not abused by those editors, it would have 
been a sure sign, that he had abandoned the cause of liberty, and of man. But his 
political course has been marked by that bold and manly independence of character 
which has certainly commanded, if not the approbation, at' least the respect of his 
opponents. 

Mr. Barlow himself, on account of his political opinions bad been treated with the 
most shameful neglect by his old friends and associates of the New England States, and 
he felt vexed at it, and seems to take this opportunity to express his contempt, by 
lamenting that Mr. Paine should, as he supposed, have been mortified at similar treat- 
ment. 

Mr. Barlow was a fashionable man, and had the means, as well as the inclination 
to make a show. Had Mr. Paine acquired (which he might have done if he had 
sold instead of given away his works) a sufficiency to purchase such an establishment 
as Mr. Barlow had, at Kolarama, and had been so disposed, he might have induced 
tiie first men in the country to eat his dinners and to sound his praise. 

It was to be expected that religious bigots, who conceive themselves privileged to 
hate and persecute every man that does not believe in mysteries and witchcraft, would 
shun and speak evil of Mr. Paine ; as well as certain pharisaical politicians, whose 
consequence mainly depends on* a supposed coincidence of sentiment with the foregoing. 
Such men would avoid coming in contact with a man, the fire of whose genius they 
could not endure for a moment. 

The opponents of Mr. Paine's political and religious writings have shown great so- 
licitude to fix upon him the charge of intemperance; as though, this circumstance, if 
true, could invalidate, or in the least weaken, the moral force of his principles. The 
apostate, Cheetham, in his letter to Barlow, particularly alludes to this subject. And 
it appears that the latter incautiously has too readily acceeded to the slander. The 
mind, memory, and fancy of Mr. Paine, as described by Mr. B. could not apply to 
a man who " gave himself very much to drink." But, as Mr. Barlow 5 s authority 
is justly entitled to the highest consideration ; and as great importance has affectedly 
been attached to this allegation against our author ; for the satisfaction of those who 
revere his memory, I have made the most rigid inquiries of persons who have been in- 



INTRODUCTION. 



2: 



timate with him, either in Europe or America, to ascertain the facts in this case. A 
friend of mine gives me the following account of a visit he made to Mr. Paine in the 
summer of 1806. He was then residing on his farm at New Rochelle, and this gen- 
tleman remained with him for several days, during which time Mr. Paine's only 
drink was water, excepting one tumbler of spirits and water, sweetened, after dinner, 
and one after supper. Mr. Dean, who managed the farm, assured him that this 
was Mr. Paine's constant habit, and that one quart of spirits sufficed him for a week, 
including that given to his friends; which he regularly procured from a grocer every 
Saturday. This gentleman also saw a certificate, signed by John Lovett, keeper of 
the city hotel, New-York, with whom Mr. Paine had lodged as a boarder, testifying 
to his sober habits. This had been procured at the request of a number of gentlemen 
of Boston, who were desirous to obtain correct information in regard to die charges 
preferred against him in this respect. 

The fact is, Mr. Paine was not a fashionable man of the world, his recluse mode 
of life disqualified him for convivial parties, and when induced, by his friends, to join 
in them, he could not keep pace in drinking with those more used to such meetings, 
without being disguised by it, which was sometimes the case. The very circumstance, 
therefore, of his abstemious habits rendering him unable to bear but a small quantity 
of spirituous liquor, without feeling its effects, appears to have given rise to the slan- 
ders which have been promulgated against him. The acuteness and strength of mind 
which he possessed to the close of life is a proof of the correctness of this opinion. 
Few, if any,~of those who accused him of injuring his faculties by hard drinking could 
cope with him in the field of argument, even in the most advanced stage of his life. 
They had reason to wish that he had been such as they represented him to be. In that 
case, he would have been a far less formidable antagonist, and besides kept many of 
his accusers in countenance ; for it is not unusual for the advocates of royalty, after 
drinking one or two bottles, to curse Thomas Paine for a drunkard. 

If what was said by his enemies had become notorious, as they pretend, he would 
hardly venture to speak of himself in the manner he has, in his letter to Samuel 
Adams ; which he caused to be published in the National Intelligencer, a paper 
printed at Washington City, and is as follows : " I have yet, I believe, some years 
in store, for I have a good statg, of health and a happy mind ; I take care of both, 
by nourishing the first with temperance, and the latter with abundance. This, I be- 
lieve, you will allow to be the true philosophy of life." 

Finally, from all I can learn, Mr. Paine never drank any spirituous liquors before 
dinner. He was always bright in the morning, and able to wield his pen with effect, 
and when it is considered, that he was without family, in a manner isolated from 
society, and bitterly attacked on all sides by the enemies of civil and religious liberty, 
if he occasionally indulged a little to dissipate the chagrin arising from these causes, 
some grains of allowance ought to be made, at least by his friends ; from his enemies 
none are expecte^ 

I cannot relinquish the subject without taking notice of one of the most vile and 
wicked stories that was ever engendered in the fruitful imagination of depraved mor- 
tals. It was fabricated by a woman, named Mary Hinsdale, and published by one 
Charles Collins, at New-York, or rather, it is probable that this work was the joint 
production of Collins, and some other fanatics, and that they induced this stupid, ig- 
norant woman to stand sponsor for it. 

It states, in substance ; that Thomas Paine, in his last illness, was in the most 
pitiable condition for want of the mere necessaries of life; and that the neighbours 
out of sheer compassion, contributed their aid to supply him with sustenance : that he 
had become converted to superstition.* and lamented that all his religious works had 
hot been burned : that Mrs. Bonneville was in the utmost distress for having abandon- 
ed her religion, as she (M. H.) said for that of Mr. Paine, which he now told her 
would not answer the purpose, &c. In all this rodomotade there is not a single, soli- 
tary ray of truth to give it a colourable pretext. It is humiliating to be under the 
necessity of exposing such contemptible nonsense. Collins, if he was not the author, 
was assured of its falsity : But being full of the spirit of fanaticism and intolerance, 
and believing, no doubt, that the end sanctified the means, he continued to circulate 
the pious fraud, and the clergy exultingly retailed it from the pulpit. Nothing but 
religious frenzy could have induced Collins, after being warned of the crime he 

* I make use of the word superstition, and not Christianity, because Mr. Paine was 
strictly a Christian in the proper sense of the term, which, as before observed, is pure 
deism. 



22 



INTRODUCTION. 



was committing, to persist in publishing this abominable trash.* He had the 
hardihood even to apply to William Cobbett for the purpose of inducing him to insert 
it in the life of Thomas Paine, which Mr. Cobbett then contemplated to write. For 
which he received due chastisement from the pen of that distinguished writer, in a 
number of his register. I am told that Mr. Cobbett subsequently, having taken great 
pains to investigate the falsity of this story, exposed and refuted it in the most ample 
manner, in his Evening Post. This I ha«ve not seen, nor is the Register, containing 
the article alluded to, before me. Mrs. Bonneville was absent in France at the time 
of its first appearance in New-York, and when shown to her on her return to Ameri- 
ca, although her feelings were highly agitated at the baseness of the fabrication, she ' 
would not permit her name to appear in print in competition with that of Mary Hins- 3 
dale. No notice therefore has been taken of it, excepting by Mr. Cobbett. Indeed ; 
it was considered by the friends of Mr. Paine generally to be too contemptible to con- 
trovert. But as many pious people continue to believe, or pretend to believe in this 
stupid story, it was thought proper to say a few words upon it in this publication. 

The facts are as follows : — Mary Hinsdale was hired at service in the family of j 
Mr. Willet Hicks, residing at Greenwich Village, in the neighbourhood of Mr. Paine, 1 
who occasionally sent some little delicacies to him in the time of his sickness, as every 
good neighbour w 7 ould do ; and this woman was the bearer. Here is the whole foun- : 
dation upon which the distorted imagination of Mary Hinsdale, or some one for her, 1 
has raised this diabolical fiction. Mr. Hicks was in the habit of seeing Mr. Paine 1 
frequently, and must have known if such a wonderful revolution had taken place in 1 
his mind, as is stated, and he does not hesitate to say, that the whole account is a - 
pious fraud. Mr. Hicks is a respectable merchant at 'New-York, and any one D 
there, who has any doubts on the subject, by calling on him will be satisfied. Even 
James Cheetham, the libeller of Mr. Paine, acknowledges that he died in the reli- 1 
gious faith which he had inculcated in his writings. Which is also attested by liis 1 
physician, Dr. Manley, and all those who visited him in his last illness. But to put 
this matter beyond all cavil, I shall add the certificate of two old and highly respecta- | 
ble citizens, Thomas Nixon of New- York, and Capt. Daniel Pelton of New Rochelle. 
It was addressed to William Cobbett, under an expectation that he was about to write ■ 
the life of Thomas Paine, and left with a friend to be handed to him ; but as the un- 9 
dertaking w r as relinquished, it was never delivered^ and is now in my possession, in ' 
the hand writing of the signers ; and is as follows : 

I 

TO MR, WILLIAM COBBETT. 

Sib — Having been informed, that you have a design to write a histoiy of the life •'" 
and writings of Thomas Paine^ if you have been furnished with materials in respect 
to his religious opinions, or rather of his recantation of his former opinions before his : ! 
death, all you may have heard of his recanting is false. Being aware that such re- 
ports would be raised after his death by fanacticks which infested his house at the " 
time it was expected he would die, we, the subscribers, intimate acquaintances of " 
Thomas Paine, since the year 1776, went to his house — he was sitting up in a chair, 'j 
and apparently in the full vigor and use of all his mental faculties. We interrogated * 
him on his religious opinions, and if he had changed his mind or repented of any P 
thing he had said or wrote on that subject. He answered, " not at all," and appeared 
rather offended at our supposition that any change should take place in his mind. 1 
We took down in writing the questions put to him, and his answers thereto, before a 5 
number of persons then in his room, amongst which was his Doctor, Mrs. Bonneville, 1 ^ 
&c. This paper is mislaid and cannot be found at present, but the above is the sub- [ ^ 
stance, which can be attested by many living witnesses. 

THOMAS NIXON. f * 
DANIEL PELTON. 

New-York, AprU 24th, 1818. 

* Since writing the above, it has oeen suggested to me, by a gentleman wno knows 
him, that this base act of Collins is attributable more to his actual stupidity than either 
his fanaticism or malice. That he is too weak to be aware of the sin of slander; and 
has no doubt, in this case, been made use of, as a mere puppet, by others behind the 
scene, more knowing and more wicked than himself. If this be the fact, it is charity 
to state it to the public, as his case will tend to excite pity, and depreciate, in souse 
measure, the enormity of his guilt in this transaction. 



INTRODUCTION. 



23 



* The questions and answers, alluded to in this certificate, are wanting to render it 
complete, but the intention of it is forcibly conveyed, that is, that no change had ta~ 
ken place in the mind of Mr. Paine. And the world may rest assured that he died 
as he had lived, like a philosopher, in the belief of one god, and in the hope of im- 
mortality in another life. 

As to his pecuniary circumstances, he was possessed at his death, of a farm, which 
had been sold by him some years before for $10,000, but the purchaser dying, his 
family induced Mr. P. to receive it back. He had $1,500 in cash on hand, or in con- 
vertible insurance stock ; and had been paying $30 a week for several weeks before 
his death, for the board and accommodations of himself, Mrs. Bonneville, and 
a nurse ; which was regularly paid at the end of each week. This does not look like 
being in want of the means of subsistence. 

In regard to what took place respecting his burial, as it has been incorrectly sta- 
ted, it may not be amiss to remark, that not long before his death, he observed to 
Mr. Willet Hicks, that as his family belonged to the society of Quakers, and as he 
had been educated in that persuasion himself, and knew that its members possessed 
less superstition than other sectarians, he should perfer being interred in their bury- 
ing ground ; but added, as he had been so long separated from them, perhaps there 
might be objections on their part ; and, if so, it was of no consequence. Mr. Hicks 
accordingly made the proposal to the society, which, in reply, suggested the probabil- 
ity that Mr. P's. friends might wish to raise a monument to his memory, which being 
contrary to their rules, would render it inconvenient to them. On this being commu- 
nicated to Mr. P. he received it with indifference, and here the matter ended. I take 
the liberty of again referring to Mr. Hicks for the truth of this statement. It has 
been falsely said, that a difference of religious opinions was the ground of objection 
made to Mr. P's. proposition; which, if true, would be a reproach to the Quaker 
society, or to any other religious denomination in like case. It is well known, that 
in bigotted catholic countries, no deist, or protestant (heretic, as the catholics would 
call him) would be permitted to be buried in any consecrated church ground. But 
it is to be hoped that no-protestant of any denomination would wish to see his sect 
retrograde so far into religious barbarism as to refuse decent burial to a fellow-mor- 
tal on account of his religious faith. No such objection has ever been made in New- 
York ; and the vestry of trinity church are obliged by law to permit, without reward 
all strangers, as well as those who are not members of any particular church or con- 
gregation, to be interred in their burying-ground, on pain, in case of refusal, of for- 
feiting their charter. 

Attempts have been made to injure the character of Mr. Paine, by impugning that 
of Mrs. Bonneville. James Cheetham, for this offence, after a long and rigid inves- 
tigation in a court of justice, was mulct in the sum of £100, and obliged to expunge 
the obnoxious passage from his infamous book. As the connection of Mr. P. with 
the Bonneville family is not generally known, it is proper to observe, that he resided 
with Mr. B. at Paris, as his friend and guest for the space of six years. Bonneville 
was the editor of a public paper during the revolution of France, and on the eleva- 
tion of Bonaparte to power, refused to approbate the measure, and wrote against it. 
In this he was probably advised and aided by Mr. P. The consequence was, that 
Bonaparte suppressed his paper, which was the cause of great embarrassments to 
him; and Paine, ongoing to America, invited Bonneville to follow him with his fam- 
ily, promising to do every thing in his power to aid him. Accordingly, some time 
after his departure, Bonneville sent his wife and three children, remaining in France 
himself to settle his affairs. They were received by Mr. Paine with the utmost 
kindness, and provided for ; and at his death he left by his will to Bonneville and hjs 
children, the greatest portion of his property ; thereby paying a debt of gratitude with 
interest. 



TO MY 



FELLOW CITIZENS 

OF THE 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



PUT the following work under your protection. It con- 
tains my opinion upon Religion. You will do me the justice to 
remember, that I have always strenuously supported the Right 
of every Man to his opinion, however different that opinion might 
be to mine. He who denies to another this right, makes a slave 
of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself 
the right of changing- it. 

The most formidable weapon 3 against errors of every kind, is 
Reason. I have never used any other, and I trust I never shall. 

Your affectionate friend and fellow-citizen, 

THOMAS PAINE. 

Jjuxembourg, (Paris,) Zth Pluvioise, 
Second year of the French Republic, one and indivisible. 
January 27, O. S. 1794. 



THE 

AGE OF REASON. 

PART THE FIRST. 
BEING AN INVESTIGATION OF 

TRUE AND FABULOUS THEOLOGY. 



It has been my intention, for several years past, to publisn my 
| thoughts upon religion ; I am well aware of the difficulties that 
attend the subject, and from that consideration, had reserved it to 
a more advanced period of life. I intended it to be the last offer- 
ing I should make to my fellow-citizens of all nations, and that at 
a time when the purity of the motive that induced me to it, could 
not admit of a question, even by those who might disapprove the 
work. 

The circumstance that has now taken place in France of the 
total abolition of the whole national order of priesthood, and of 
every thing appertaining to compulsive systems of religion, and 
compulsive articles of faith, has not only precipitated my intention, 
but rendered a work of this kind exceedingly necessary, lest, in 
the general wreck of superstition, of false systems of government, 
and false theology, we lose sight of morality, of humanity, and of 
the theology that is true. 

As several of my colleagues, and others of my fellow-citizens of 
France, have given me the example of making their voluntary and 
individual profession of faith, I also will make mine ; and I do this 
with all that sincerity and frankness with which the mind of man 
communicates v/ith itself. 

I believe in one God, and no more : and I hope for happiness 
beyond this life. 

I believe the equality of man ; and I believe that religious du- 
ties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavouring to 
make our fellow-creatures happy. 

- But, lest it should be supposed that I believe many other things 
in addition to these, I shall, in the progress of this work, declare 
the things I do not believe, and my reasons for not believing 
them. 

I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, 
by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish 



28 THE AGE OF REASON. 

church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that T know ; i 
of. My own mind is my own clmrch. 

All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, 
or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up 
to terrify and -enslave mankind, and monopolize power and 
profit. 

I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe | do 
otherwise; they have the same right to their belief as I have to 
mine. But it is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be 
mentally faithful to himself, infidelity does not consist in believ- 
ing or in disbelieving ; it consists in professing to believe what 
he does not believe. 

It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so ex- | la 
press it, that mental lying has produced in society. When a man 
has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind, as to 
subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe, he 
has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime. — . 
He takes up the trade of a priest for the sake of gain, and in order [ 
to qualify himself for that trade, he begins with a perjury. Can j 
we conceive any thing more destructive to morality than this ? 

Soon after I had published the pamphlet, " Common Sense, " in 
America, I saw the exceeding probability that a revolution in the 
system of government would be- followed by a revolution in the 
system of religion. The adulterous connexion of church and j 
state, wherever it had taken place, whether J ewish, Christian, or 
Turkish, had so effectually prohibited by pains and penalties every 
discussion upon established creeds, and upon first principles of 
religion, that until the system of government should be changed, 
those subjects could not be brought fairly and openly before the 
world ; but that whenever this should be done, a revolution in the 
system of religion would follow. Human inventions and priest- 
craft would be detected ; and man would return to the pure, un- 
mixed, and unadulterated belief of one God, and no more. 

Every national church or religion has established itself by pre- 
tending some special mission from God, communicated to certain 
individuals. The Jews have their Moses ; the Christians their 
Jesus Christ, their apostles, and saints ; and the Turks their 
Mahomet, as if the way to God was not open to every man 
alike. 

Each of those churches show certain books, which they call 
revelation, or the word of God. The Jews say, that their word 
of God was given by God to Moses, face to face ; the Christians 
say, that their word of God came by divine inspiration ; and the 
Turks say, that their word of God (the Koran) was brought by 
an angel from Heaven. Each of those churches accuse the other 
of unbelief ; and, for my own part, I disbelieve them all. 
* As it is necessary to affix right ideas to words, I will, before I 
proceed further into the subject, offer some other observations on 



THE AGE OF REASON. 29 

j the word revelation. Revelation, when applied to religion, means 

something communicated immediately from God to man. 
|! No one will deny or dispute the power of the Almighty to make 
ij such a communication, if he pleases. But admitting, for the sake 
of a case, that something has been revealed to a certain person, 
and not revealed to any other person, it is revelation to that person 
I only. When he tells it to a second person, a second to a third, 
j a third to a fourth, and so on, it ceases to be a revelation to all 
I those persons. It is revelation to the first person only, and 
j hearsay to every other ; and, consequently, they are not obliged 
to believe it. 

! It is a contradiction in terms and ideas, to call any thing a reve- 
lation that comes to us at second-hand, either verbally or in writ- 
j ing. Revelation is necessarily limited to the first communication ; 
j after this, it is only an account of something which that person 
I says was a revelation made to him ; and though he may find him- 
j self obliged to believe it, it cannot be incumbent on me to believe 
! it in the same manner ; for it was not a revelation made to me, 
and I have only his word for it that it was made to him. 

When Moses told the children of Israel that he received the 
two tables of the commandments from the hands of God, they were 
not obliged to believe him, because they had no other authority for 
it than his telling them so ; and I have no other authority for it 
than some historian telling me so. The commandments carry no 
internal evidence of divinity with them ; they contain some good 
moral precepts, such as any man qualified to be a lawgiver, or a 
legislator, could produce himself, without having recourse to su- 
pernatural intervention.* 

When I am told that the Koran was written in Heaven, and 
brought to Mahomet by an angel, the account comes too near the 
same kind of hearsay evidence and second-hand authority as the 
formed I did not see the angel myself, and, therefore, I have a 
right not to believe it. _ 

When also I am told that a woman called the Virgin Mary, said, 
or gave out, that she was with child without any cohabitation with 
a man, and that her betrothed husband, Joseph, said that an angel 
told him so, I have a right to believe them or not ; such a circum- 
stance required a much stronger evidence than their bare word for 
it ; but we have not even this — for neither Joseph nor Mary wrote 
any such matter themselves ; it is only reported by others that 
they said so — it is hearsay upon hearsay, and I do not choose to 
rest my belief upon such evidence. 

It is, however, not difficult to account for the credit that was 
given to the story of Jesus Christ being the son of God. He was 
born when the heathen mythology had still some fashion and re- 

* It is, however, necessary to except the declaration which says, that God^ visits 
the sins of the fathers upon the children ; it is contrary to every principle of 
moral justice. 



30 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



pute in the world, and that mythology had prepared the people 
for the belief of such a story. Almost all the extraordinary men 
that lived under the heathen mythology, were reputed to be the 
sons of some of their gods. It was not a new thing, at that time T 
to believe a man to have been celestially begotten ; the inter- 
course of gods with women was then a matter of familiar opinion. 
Their Jupiter, according to their accounts, had cohabited with 
hundreds ; the story therefore had nothing in it either new, won- 
derful, or obscene ; it was conformable to the opinions that then 
prevailed among the people called Gentiles, or Mythologists, and 
it was those people only that believed it. The Jews, who had 
kept strictly to the belief of one God, and no more, and who had 
always rejected the heathen mythology, never credited the story. 

It is curious to observe how the theory of what is called the 
Christian church, sprung out of the tale of the heathen mythology. 
A direct incorporation took place in the first instance, by making 
the reputed founder to be celestially begotten. The trinity of gods 
that then followed was no other than a reduction of the former 
plurality, which was about twenty or thirty thousand ; the statue 
of Mary succeeded the statue of Diana of Ephesus ; the deifica- 
tion of heroes changed into the canonization of saints ; the mythol- 
ogists had gods for every thing ; the Christian mythologists had 
saints for every thing ; the church became as crowded with the 
one, as the pantheon had been with the other ; and Rome was the 
place of both. The Christian theory is little else than the idola- 
try of the ancient Mythologists, accommodated to the purposes of 
power and revenue ; and it yet remains to reason and philosophy 
to abolish the amphibious fraud. 

Nothing that is here said can apply, even with the most distant 
disrespect, to the real character of Jesus Christ. He was a vir- 
tuous and an amiable man. The morality that he preached and 
practised was of the most benevolent kind ; and thoughtsimilar 
systems of morality had been preached by Confucius, and by some 
of the Greek philosophers, many years before ; by the Quakers 
since ; and by many good men in all ages, it has not been ex- 
ceeded by any. 

Jesus Christ wrote no account of himself, of his birth, paren- 
tage, or any thing else ; not a line of what is called the New Tes- 
tament is of his own writing. The history of him is altogether 
the work of other people ; and as to the account given of his res- 
urrection and ascension, it was the necessary counterpart to the 
story of his birth. His historians, having brought him info the 
worid in a supernatural manner, were obliged to take him out 
again in the same manner, or the first part of the story must have 
fallen to the ground. 

The wretched contrivance with which this latter part is told, ex- 
ceeds every thing that went before it. The first part, that of the 
miraculous conception, was not a thing that admitted of publicity ; 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



31 



and therefore the tellers of this part of the story had this advan- 
tage, that though they might not be credited, they could not be 
| detected. They could not be expected to prove it, because it was 
not one of those things that admitted of proof, and it was impossi- 
ble that the person of whom it was told could prove it himself. 
Rut the resurrection of a dead person from the grave, and his 
j ascension through the air, is a thing very different as to the evi- 
I dence it admits of, to the invisible conception of a child in the 
I womb. The resurrection and ascension, supposing them to have 
J taken place, admitted of public and ocular demonstration, like that 
of the ascension of a balloon, or the sun at noon day, to all Jeru- 
salem at least. A thing which every body is required to believe, 
requires that the proof and evidence of it should be equal to all, 
{ and universal ; and as the public visibility of this last related act 
I was the only evidence that could give sanction to the former part, 
ij the whole of it falls to the ground, because that evidence never 
was given. Instead of this, a small number of persons, not more 
f than eight or nine, are introduced as proxies for the whole world, 
to say they saw it, and all the rest of the world are called upon tc 
I believe it. But it appears that Thomas did not believe the res- 
i urrection ; and, as they say would not believe without having # 
ocular and manual demonstration himself. So neither will J, and 
the reason is equally as good for me, and for every other person 
as for Thomas. jj 
It is in vain to attempt to palliate or disguise this matter. The 
story, so far as relates to the supernatural part, has every mark o 
fraud and imposition stamped upon the face of it. Who were the 
authors of it is as impossible for us now to know, as it is for us to be 
assured, that the books in which the account is related, were writ- 
ten by the persons whose names they bear ; the best surviving ev- 
idence we now have respecting this affair is the Jews. They are 
regularly descended from the people who lived in the times this 
resurrection and ascension is said to have happened, and they say, 
it is not true. It has long appeared to me a strange inconsistency 
to cite the Jews as a proof of the truth of the story. It is just the 
same as if a man were to say, I will prove the truth of what I have 
told you, by producing the people who say it is false. 
v That such a person as Jesus Christ existed, and that he was 
crucified, which was the mode of execution at that day, are histori- 
cal relations strictly within the limits of probability. He preached 
most excellent morality, and the equality of man ; but he preached 
also against the corruptions and avarice of the Jewish priests, and 
this brought upon him the hatred and vengeance of the whole order 
of priesthood. The accusation which those priests brought against 
him, was that of sedition and conspiracy against the Roman gov- 
ernment, to which the Jews were then subject and tributary ; 
and it is not improbable that the Roman government might have 
some secret apprehensions of the effects of his doctrines as wel 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



as the Jewish priests ; neither is it improbable that Jesus Christ 
had in contemplation the delivery of the Jewish nation from the 
bondage of the Romans. Between the two., however, this virtu- 
ous reformer and revolutionist lost his life. 

It is upon this plain narrative of facts, together with another 
case I am going to mention, that the Christian Mythologists, call- 
ing themselves the Christian Church, have erected their fable, 
which for absurdity and extravagance is not exceeded by any 
thing that is to be found in the mythology of the ancients. 

The ancient Mythologists tell us that the race of Giants made 
war against Jupiter, and that one of them threw an hundred rocks 
against him at one throw ; that Jupiter defeated him with thunder, 
and confined him afterwards under Mount JEtna, and that every 
time the Giant turns himself, Mount JEtna belches fire. 

It is here easy to see that the circumstance of the mountain, 
that of its being a volcano, suggested the idea of the fable ; and 
that the fable is made to fit and wind itself up with that circum- 
stance. 

The Christian Mythologists tell us, that their Satan made war 
against the Almighty, who defeated him, and confined him after- 
. wards, not under a mountain, but in a pit. It is here easy to see 
that the first fable suggested the idea of the second ; for the fable 
of Jupiter and the Giants was told many hundred years before 
that of Satan. 

Thus far the ancient and the Christian Mythologists differ very 
little from each other. But the latter have contrived to carry the 
matter much farther. 'They have contrived to connect the fabu- 
lous part of the story of Jesus Christ with the fable originating 
from Mount iEtna ; and,- in order to make all the parts of the 
story tie together, they have taken to their aid the traditions of 
the Jews; for the Christian mythology is made up partly from the 
ancient mythology, and partly from the J ewish traditions. 

The Christian Mythologists, after having confined Satan in a 
pit, were obliged to let him out again, to bring on the sequel of" 
the fable. He is then introduced into the garden of Eden in the 
shape of a snake or a serpent, and in that shape he enters into 
familiar conversation with Eve, who is no way surprised to hear 
a snake talk ; and the issue of this tete-a-tete is, that he per- 
suades her to eat an apple, and the eating of that apple damns all 
mankind. 

After giving Satan this triumph over the whole creation, one 
would have supposed that the church Mythologists would have 
been kind enough to send him back again to the pit ; or, if they 
had not done this, that they would have put a mountain upon him, 
(for they say that their faith can remove a mountain) or have put 
him under a mountain, as the former Mythologists had done, to 
prevent his getting again among the women, and doing more 
mischief. But instead of this, they leave him at larsre. without 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



33 



even obliging him to give his parole — the secret of which is, that 
they could not do without him ; and after being at the trouble of 
making him, they bribed him to stay. They promised him all 
the Jews, all the Turks by anticipation, nine-tenths of the world 
beside, and Mahomet into the bargain. After this, who can doubt 
the bountifulness of the Christian mythology ? 

Having thus made an insurrection and a battle in Heaven, in 
which none of the combatants could be either killed or wounded — 
put Satan into the pit — let him out again — given him a triumph over 
the whole creation — damned all mankind by the eating of an 
apple, these Christian Mythologists bring the two ends of their fa- 
ble together. They represent this virtuous and amiable man, 
Jesus Christ, to be at once both God and Man, and also the Son 
of God, celestially begotten, on purpose to be sacrificed, because 
they say that Eve in her longing had eaten an apple. 

Putting aside every thing that might excite laughter by its absur- 
dity, or detestation by its prophaneness, and confining ourselves 
merely to an examination of the parts, it is impossible to conceive 
a story more derogatory to the almighty, more inconsistent with 
his wisdom, more contradictory to his power, than this story 
is. 

In order to make for it a foundation to rise upon, the inventors 
were under the necessity of giving to the being, whom they call 
Satan, a power equally as great, if not greater than they attribute 
to the Almighty. They have not only given him the power of 
liberating himself from the pit, after what they call his fall, but 
they have made that power increase afterwards to infinity. Before 
this fall they represent him only as an angel of limited exis'tence, 
as they represent the rest. After his fall, he becomes, by their 
account, omnipresent. He exists every where, and at the same 
time. He occupies the whole immensity of space. • 

Not content with this deification of Satan, they represent him 
as defeating, by stratagem, in the shape of an animal of the creation, 
all the power and wisdom of the Almighty. They represent him 
as having compelled the Almighty to the direct necessity either of 
surrendering the whole of the creation to the government and 
sovereignty of this Satan, or of capitulating for its redemption by 
coming down upon earth, and exhibiting himself upon a cross in 
the shape of a man. 

Had the inventors of this story told it the contrary way, that is, 
had they represented the Almighty as compelling Satan to exhibit 
himself on a cross, in the shape of a snake, as a punishment for nis 
new transgression, the story would have been less absurd — less 
contradictory. But instead of this they make the transgressor 
triumph, and the Almighty fall. 

That many good men have believed this strange fable, and lived 
very good lives under that belief (for credulity is not a crime) is 
what I have no doubt of. In the first place, they were educated to 



34 



THE AGE OF REASOISf. 



believe it, and they would have believed any thing else in the same 
manner. There are also many who have been so enthusiastically 
enraptured by what they conceived to be the infinite love of God 
to man, in making a sacrifice of himself, that the vehemence of the 
idea has forbidden and deterred them from examining into the ab- 
surdity and profaneness of the story. The more unnatural any 
thing is, the more is it capable of becoming the object of dismal 
admiration. 

But if objects for gratitude and admiration are our desire, do they 
not present themselves every hour to our eyes ? Do we not see a 
fair creation prepared to receive us the instant we are born — a 
world furnished to our hands, that cost us nothing ? Is it we that 
light up the sun, that pour down the rain, and fill the earth with 
abundance ? Whether we sleep or wake, the vast machinery of the 
universe still goes on. Are these things, and the blessings they 
indicate in future, nothing to us ? Can our gross feelings be ex- 
cited by no other subjects than tragedy and suicide ? Or is the 
gloomy pride of man become so intolerable, that nothing can flat- 
ter it but a sacrifice of the Creator? 

I know this bold investigation will alarm many, but it would 
be paying too great a compliment to their credulity to forbear it up- 
on that account ; the times and the subject demand it to be done. 
The suspicion that the theory of what is called the Christian church 
is fabulous, is becoming very extensive in all countries ; and it will 
be a consolation to men staggering under that suspicion, and 
doubting what to believe and what to disbelieve, to see the subject 
freely investigated. I therefore pass on to an examination of the 
books called the Old and New Testament. 

These books, beginning with Genesis and ending with Revela- 
tion (which by the bye is a book of riddles that requires a revela- 
tion to explain it) are, we are told, the word of God. It is, there- 
fore, proper for us to know who told us so, that we may know what 
credit to give to the report. The answer to this question is, that 
nobody can tell, except that we tell one another so. The case, 
however, historically appears to be as follows : — 
. When the church Mythologies established their system, they 
collected all the writings they could find, and managed them as 
they pleased. It is a matter altogether of uncertainty to us 
whether such of the writings as now appear under the name of 
the Old and New Testament, are in the same state in which those 
collectors say they found them, or whether they added, altered, 
abridged, or dressed them up. 

Be this as it may, they decided by vote which of th& books out 
of the collection they had made, should be the word of god, and 
which should not. They rejected several ; they voted others to 
be doubtful, such as the books called the Apocrypha ; and those 
books which had a majority of votes, were voted to be the word 
of God. Had thev voted otherwise, all the people, since calling 



THE AGE OF REASON. 35 

;! 

j themselves Christians, had believed otherwise — for the belief of 
I the one comes from the vote of the other. Who the people were 
j| that did all this, we know nothing of, they called themselves by the 

general name of the Church ; and this is all we know of the matter. 
! As we have no other external evidence or authority for believ- 

ing those books to be the word of God than what I have mentioned, 
I which is no evidence or authority at all, I come, in the next place, 

to examine the internal evidence contained in the books them- 
,' selves. 

In the former part of this Essay, I have spoken of revelation. — 
I now proceed further with that subject, for the purpose of apply- 
ing it to the books in question. 

Revelation is a communication of something, which the person, 
to whom that thing is revealed, did not know before. For if I 
have done a thing, or seen it done, it needs no revelation to tell me 
I have done it, or seen it, nor to enable me to tell it, or to write it. 
Revelation, therefore, cannot be applied to any thing done upon 
earth, of which man is himself the actor or the witness ; and con- 
sequently all the historical and anecdotal part of the Bible, which 
is almost the whole of it, is not within the meaning and compass 
of the word revelation, and therefore is not the word of God. 

When Sampson ran off with the gate-posts of Gaza, if he ever 
did so, (and whether he did or not is nothing to us) or when he 
visited his Delilah, or caught his foxes, or did any thing else, what 
has revelation to do with these things ? If they were facts, he 
could tell them himself ; or his secretary, if he kept one, could 
write them, if they were worth either telling or writing ; and if 
they were nctious, revelation could not make them true ; and 
whether true or not, we are neither the better nor the wiser for 
knowing them. When we contemplate the immensity of that Be- 
ing, who directs and governs the incomprehensible whole, of 
which the utmost ken of human sight can discover but a part, we 
ought to feel shame at calling such paltry stories the word of God. 

As to the account of the Creation, with which the book of Gen- 
esis opens, it has all the appearance of being a tradition which 
the Israelites had among them before they came into Egypt ; and 
after their departure from that country, they put it at the head of 
their history, without telling (as it is most probable) that they did 
not know how they came by it. The manner in which the ac- 
count opens, shov/s it to be traditionary. It begins abruptly : it 
is nobody that speaks ; it is nobody that hears ; it is addressed to 
nobody ; it has neither first, second, or third person ; it has every 
criterion of being a tradition, it has no voucher. Moses does not 
take it upon himself by introducing it with the formality that he 
uses on other occasions, such as that of saying,, " The Lord spake 
unto Moses , saying." 

Why it has been called the Mosaic account of the Creaton, I 
am at a loss to conceive. Moses, I believe, was too good a judge 



56 



THE AGE OF REASON 



of such subjects to put his name to that account. He had been 
educated among the Egyptians, who were a people as well skilled 
in science, and particularly in astronomy, as any people of their 
day ; and the silence and caution that Moses observes, in not au- 
thenticating the account, is a good negative evidence that he 
neither told it nor believed it. — The case is, that every nation of 
people has been world-makers, and the Israelites had as much 
right to set up the trade of world-making as any of the rest ; and 
as Moses was not an Israelite, he might not choose to contradict 
the tradition. The account, however, is harmless ; and this is 
more than can be said of many other parts of the Bible. 

Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debau- 
cheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vin- 
dictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would 
be more consistent that we called it the word of a Demon, than 
the word of God. It is a history of wickedness, that has served 
to corrupt and brutalize mankind ; and, for my own part, I sin- 
cerely detest it as I detest every thing that is cruel. 

We scarcely meet with any thing, a few phrases excepted, but 
what deserves either our abhorrence or our contempt, till we come 
to the miscellaneous parts of the Bible. In the anonymous pub- 
lications, the Psalms, and the Book of Job, more particularly in 
the latter, we find a great deal of elevated sentiment reverentially 
expressed of the power and benignity of the Almighty ; but they 
stand on no higher rank than many other compositions on similar 
subjects, as well before that time as since. 

The Proverbs which are said to be Solomon's, though most 
probably a collection (because they discover a knowledge of life, 
which his situation excluded him from knowing) are an instructive 
table of ethics. They are inferior in keenness to the proverbs of 
the Spaniards, and not more wise and economical than those of 
the American Franklin. 

All the remaining parts of the Bible, generally known by the 
name of the Prophets, are the works of the J ewish poets and itine- 
rant preachers, who mixed poetry, anecdote, and devotion to- 
gether — and those works still retain the air and style of poetry, 
though in translation.* 

^ * As there are many readers who do not see that a composition is poetry, unless it 
he in rhyme, it is for their information that I add this note. 

Poetry consists principally in two things — imagery and composition. The composi- 
tion of poetry differs from that of prose in the manner of mixing long and short sylla- 
bles together. Take a long syllable out of a line of poetry, and put a short one in 
the room of it, or put a long syllable where a short one should be, and that line will 
Ipse its poetical harmony. It will have an effect upon the line like that of misplacing 
a note in a song. 

The imagery in those books, called the prophets, appertains altogether to poetry. 
It is lictitious, and often extravagant, and not admissible in any other kind of writing 
than poetry. 

To show that these writings are composed in poetical numbers, I will take ten 
■yllables, as they stand in the book, and make a line of the same number of syllables 



THE AGE OF REASON". 



There is not, throughout the whole book called the Bible, any 
word that describes to us what we call a poet, nor any word that 
describes what we call poetry. The case is, that the word 
prophet, to which latter times have affixed a new idea, was the Bible 
word for poet, and the word prophesying meant the art of making 
poetry. It also meant the art of playing poetry to a tune upon any 
instrument of music. 

We read of prophesying with pipes, tabrets, and horns — of 
prophesying with harps, with psalteries, with cymbals, and with 
every other instrument of music then in fashion. Were we now to 
speak of prophesying with a fiddle, or with a pipe and tabor, the 
expression would have no meaning, or would appear ridiculous, 
and to some people contemptuous, because we have changed the 
meaning of the word. 

We are told of Saul being among the prophets. . and also that he 
prophesied ; but we are not told what they prophesied nor what he 
prophesied. The case is, there was nothing to tell ; for these 
prophets were a company of musicians and poets, and Saul joined 
in the concert, and this was called prophesying. 

The account given of this affair, in the book called Samuel, is, 
that Saul met a company of prophets ; a whole company of them ! 
coming down with a psaltery, a tabret, a pip§, and a harp, and that 
they prophesied, and that he prophesied with them. But it ap- 
pears afterwards, that Saul prophesied badly ; that is, performed 
his part badly ; for it is said, that, an "evil spirit from God"* came 
upon Saul, and he prophesied. 

Now, were there no other passage in the book, called the Bible, 
than this, to demonstrate to us that we have lost the original mean- 
ing of the word prophesy, and substituted another meaning in its 
place, this alone would be sufficient ; for it is impossible to use 
and apply the word prophesy, in the place it is here used and ap- 
plied, if we give to it the sense which latter times have affixed to 
it. The manner in which it is here used strips it of all religious 
meaning, and shows that a man might then be a prophet, or might 

(heroic measure) that shall rhyme with the last word. It will then be seen that the 
composition of those books is poetical measure. The instance I shall produce is 
fiom Isaiah : — 

" Hear, O ye heavens, and give ear, O earth f* s 

'Tis God himself that calls attention forth. 
Another instance I shall quote is from the mournful Jeremiah, to which I shall add 
two other lines, for the purpose of carrying out the figure, and showing the intention 
of the poet. 

" O ! that mine head were waters and mine eyes" 
Were fountains, flowing like the liquid skies ; 
Then would I give the mighty flood release, 
And weep a deluge for the human race. > 

f * As those men, who call themselves divines and commentators, are very fond of 
puzzling one another, I leave them to contest the meaning of the first part of the 
phrase* that of an evil spirit of God. I keep to my text — I keep to the meaning 
of the word prophesy. 

4 



38 



THE, AGE OF REASON. 



"prophesy, as he may now be a poet or musician, without any re- 
gard to the morality or immorality of his character. The word was 
originally a term of science, promiscuously applied to poetry and 
to music, and not restricted to any subject upon which poetry and 
music might be exercised. 

r Deborah and Barak are called prophets, not because they pre- 
dicted any thing, but because they composed the poem or song that 
bears their name, in celebration of an act already done. David is 
ranked among the prophets, for he was a musician, and was also 
reputed to be (though perhaps very erroneously) the author of the 
Psalms. But Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not called prophets; 
it does not appear from any accounts we have that they could either 
sing, play music, or make poetry. 

. We are tdd of the greater and the lesser prophets. They might 
as well tell us of the greater and the lesser God ; for there cannot 
be degrees in prophesying, consistently with its modern sense. — 
But there are degrees in poetry, and therefore the phrase is recon- 
cileable to the case, when we understand by it the greater and the 
lesser poets. 

It is altogether unnecessary, after this, to offer any observations 
upon what those men, styled prophets, have written. The axe 
goes at once to the root, by showing that the original meaning of the 
word has been mistaken, and consequently all the inferences that 
have been drawn from those books, the devotional respect that has 
been paid to £hem, and the laboured commentaries that have been 
written upon them, under that mistaken meaning, are not worth 
disputing about. In many things, however, the writings of the 
Jewish poets deserve a better fate than that of being bound up, as 
they now are, with the trash that accompanies them, under the 
abused name of the word of God. 

If we permit ourselves to conceive right ideas of things, we must 
necessarily affix the idea, not only of unchangeableness, but of the 
utter impossibility of any change taking place, by any means or ac- 
cident whatever, in that which we would honour with the name of 
the word of God ; and therefore the word of God cannot exist in 
any written or human language. 

The continually progressive change to which the meaning of 
words is subject, the want of an universal language which renders 
translation necessary, the errors to which translations are again 
subject, the mistakes of copyists and printers, together with the 
possibility of wilful alteration, are of themselves evidences that hu- 
man language, whether in speech or in print, cannot be the vehicle 
of the word of God The word of God exits in something else. 

Did the book, called the Bible, excel in purity of ideas and ex- 
pression all the books now extant in the world, I would not take 
it for my rule of faith, as being the word of God, because the pos- 
sibility would nevertheless exist of my being imposed upon. But 
when I see throughout the greatest part of this book ; scarcely any 



THE AGE OF REASON. 3D 

thing but a history of the grossest vices, and a collection of the 
most paltry and contemptible tales, I cannoWdishonor my Creator 
by calling it by his name. 

Thus much for the Bible ; I now go on to the book called the 
New Testament. The New Testament ! that is, the new will, as 
if there could be two wills of the Creator. 

Had it been the object or the intention of Jesus Christ to estab- 
lish a new religion, he would undoubtedly have written the system 
himself, or procured it to be written in his life time. But there is 
no publication extant authenticated with his name. All the books 
called the New Testament were written after his death. He was 
a Jew by birth and by profession ; and he was the son of God in 
like manner that every other person is — for the Creator is the Fa- 
ther of All. 

The first four books, called Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, 
do not give a history of the life of Jesus Christ, but only detached 
anecdotes of him. It appears from these books, that the whole 
time of his being a preacher was not more than eighteen months ; 
and it was only during this short time, that those men became ac- 
quainted with him. They make mention of him at the age of 
twelve years, sitting, they say, among the Jewish doctors, asking 
and answering them questions. As this was several years before 
their acquaintance with him began, it is most probable they had 
this anecdote from his parents. From this time there is no ac- 
count of him for about sixteen years. Where he lived, or how 
he employed himself during this interval, is not known. Most 
probably he was working at his father's trade, which was that of 
a carpenter. It does not appear that he had any school education, 
and the probability is, that he could not write, for his parents were 
extremely poor, as appears from their not being able to pay for a 
bed when he was born. 

r It is somewhat curious that the three persons whose names are 
the most universally recorded, were of very obscure parentage. 
Moses was a foundling ; Jesus Christ was born in a stable ; and 
Mahomet was a mule-driver. The first and the last of these men, 
were founders of different systems of religion ; but Jesus Christ 
founded no new system. He called men to the practice of moral 
virtues, and the belief of one God. The great trait in his char- 
acter is philanthropy. 

The manner in which he was apprehended, shows that he was 
not much known at that time ; and it shows also, that the meetings 
he then held with his followers were in secret ; and that he had 
given over or suspended preaching publicly. Judas could no oth- 
erwise betray him than by giving information where he was, and 
pointing him out to the officers that went to arrest him ; and the 
reason for employing and paying Judas to do this could arise only 
from the causes already mentioned, that of his not being much 
known, and living concealed. 



40 



THE AGE OF REASON 



The idea of his concealment, no^only agrees very ill with his 
reputed divinity but associates with it something of pusillanimity ; 
and his being betrayed, or in other words, his being apprehended, 
on the information of one of his followers, shows that he did not 
intend to be apprehended, and consequently that he did not intend 
to be crucified. 

The Christian Mycologists tell us, that Christ died for the sins 
of the world, and that he came on purpose to die. Would it not 
then have been the-same if he had died of a fever or of the small 
pox, of old age, or of any thing else ? 

The declaratory sentence which, they say, was passed upon 
Adam, in case he eat of the apple, was not, that thou shalt surely be 
crucified, but thou shalt surely die — the sentence of death, and not 
the manner of dying. Crucifixion, therefore, or any other par- 
ticular manner of dying, made no part of the sentence that Adam 
was to suffer, and consequently, even upon their own tactics, it 
could make no part of the sentence that Christ was to suffer in the 
room of Adam. A fever would have done as well as a cross, if 
there was any occasion for either. 

This sentence of death, which they tell us, was thus passed upon 
Adam, must either have meant dying naturally, that is, ceasing to 
live, or have meant what these Mythologists call damnation ; and, 
consequently, the act of dying on the part of Jesus Christ, must, 
according to their system, apply as a prevention to one or other of 
these two things happening to Adam and to us. 

That it does not prevent our dying is evident, because we all 
die ; and if their accounts of longevity be true, men die faster since 
the crucifixion than before ; and with respect to the second ex- 
planation, (including with it the natural death of Jesus Christ as 
a substitute for the eternal death or damnation of all mankind) it 
is impertinently representing the Creator as coming off, or revok- 
ing the sentence, by a pun or a quibble upon the word death. 
That manufacturer of quibbles, St. Paul, if he wrote the books* 
that bear his name, has helped this quibble on by making another 
quibble upon the word Mam. He makes there to be two Adams ; 
the one who sins in fact, and suffers by proxy ; the other who sins 
by proxy, and suffers in fact. A religion thus interlarded with quib- 
ble, subterfuge, and pun, has a tendency to instruct its professors 
in the practice of these arts. They acquire the habit without be- 
ing aware of the cause. 

If Jesus Christ was the being which those Mythologists tell us he 
was, and that he came into this world to suffer, which is a word 
they sometimes use instead of to die, the only real suffering he 
could have endured, would have been to live. His existence here 
was a state of exilement or transportation from Heaven, and the 
way back to his original country was to die. — In fine, every thing 
in this strange system is the reverse of what it pretends to be. It 
is the reverse of truth, and I become so tired with examining into 



THE AGE OF ItEASOIN 



41 



its inconsistences and absurdities, that I hasten to the conclusion 
of it, in order to precede something better. 

How much, or what parts of the books called the New Testa- 
ment, were written by the persons whose names they bear, is what 
we can know nothing of, neither are we certain in what language 
they were originally written. The matters they now contain may 
be classed under two heads — anecdote and epistolary correspon- 
dence. 

The four books already mentioned, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and 
John, are altogether anecdotal. They relate events after they had 
taken place. They tell what Jesus Christ did and said, and what 
others did and said to him ; and in several instances they relate the 
same event differently. Revelation is necessarily out of the ques- 
tion with respect to those books ; not only because of the disagree- 
ment of the writers, but because revelation cannot be applied to the 
relating of facts by the persons who saw them done, nor to the re- 
lating or recording of any discourse or conversation by those who 
heard it. The book called the Acts of the Apostles (an anonymous 
work) belongs also to the anecdotal part. 

All the other parts of the New Testament, except the book of 
enigmas, called the Revelations, are a collection of letters under 
the name of epistles ; and the forgery of letters has been such a 
common practice in the world, that the probability is at least equal, 
whether they are genuine or forged. One thing, however, is much 
less equivocal, which is, that out of the matters contained in those 
books, together with the assistance of some old stories, the church 
has set up a system of religion very contradictory to the character 
of the person whose name it bears. It has set up a religion of 
pomp and of revenue, in pretended imitation of a person whose life 
was humility and poverty. 

The invention of purgatory, and of the releasing of souls there- 
from, by prayers, bought of the church with money ; the selling of 
pardons, dispensations, and indulgences, are revenue laws, with- 
out bearing that name or carrying that appearance. But the case 
nevertheless is, that those things derive their origin from the pa- 
roxysm of the crucifixion and the theory deduced therefrom, which 
was, that one person could stand in the place of another, and could 
perform meritorious services for him. The probability, there- 
fore, is, that the whole theory or doctrine of what is called the re- 
demption (which is said to have been accomplished by the act of 
one person in the room of another) was originally fabricated on 
purpose to bring forward and build all those secondary and pecu- 
niary redemptions upon ; and that the passages in the books upon 
which the idea of theory of redemption is built, Lave been manu- 
factured and fabricated for that purpose. Why are we to give 
this church credit, when she tells us that those books are genuine 
in every part, any more than we give her credit for every thing 
else she has told us ; or for the miracles she says she has per- 
- 4* 



42 THE AGE OF REASON. 

formed t That she could fabricate writings is certain, because she ,i 
could write ; and the composition of the writings in question is of j te 
that kind that any body might do it ; and that she did fabricate them 
is not more inconsistent with probability, than that she should tell 
us, as she has done, that she could and did work miracles. 

Since then no external evidence can, at this long distance of 
time, be produced to prove whether the church fabricated the doc- 
trines called redemption or not, (for such evidence, whether for or 
against, would be subject to the same suspicion of being fabricat- 
ed) the case can only be referred to the internal evidence which 
the thing carries of itself; and this affords a very strong presump- 
tion of its being a fabrication. For the internal evidence is, that 
the theory or doctrine of redemption has for its basis an idea of I ; 
pecuniary justice, and not that of moral justice. 

If I owe a person money, and cannot pay him, and he threat- ' 
ens to put me in prison, another person can take the debt upon j 
himself, and pay it for me ; but if I have committed a crime, ev- 1 
ery circumstance of the case is changed, moral justice cannot take 
the innocent for the guilty, even if the innocent would offer itself. 
To suppose justice to do this, is to destroy the principle of its ex- ! 
istence, which is the thing itself ; it is then no longer justice ; it 
is indiscriminate revenge. 

This single reflection will show that the doctrine of redemption j 
is founded on a mere pecuniary idea, corresponding to that of a 
debt, which another person might pay ; and as this pecuniary idea 
corresponds again with the system of second redemptions, obtained 
through the means of money given to the church for pardons, the 
probability is, that the same persons fabricated both one and the 
other of those theories ; and that, in truth, there is no such thing 
as redemption ; that it is fabulous, and that man stands in the same 
relative condition with his Maker he ever did stand, since man ex- 
isted, and that it is his greatest consolation to think so. 

Let him believe this, and he will live more consistently and mo- 
rally than by any other system ; it is by his being taught to con- 
template himself as an out-law, as an out-cast, as a beggar, as a 
mumper, as one thrown, as it were, on a dunghill, at an immense 
distance from his Creator, and who must make his approaches by 
creeping and cringing to intermediate beings, that he conceives 
either a contemptuous disregard for every thing under the name 
of religion, or becomes indifferent, or turns, what he calls devout. 
In the latter case, he consumes his life in grief, or the affectation 
of it ; his prayers are reproaches ; his humility is ingratitude ; he 
calls himself a worm ; and the fertile earth a dunghill ; and all the 
blessings of life, by the thankless name of vanities ; he despises 
the choicest gift of God to man, the gift of reason ; and having 
endeavored to force upon himself the belief of a system against 
which reason revolts, he ungratefully calls it human reason f 
man could give reason to himseK 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



43 



Yet, with all this strange appearance of humility, and this con- 
tempt for human reason, he ventures into the boldest presump- 
tions ; he finds fault with every thing; his selfishness is never 
satisfied ; his ingratitude is never at an end. He takes on him- 
self to direct the Almighty what to do, even in the government of 
the universe ; he prays dictatorially ; when it is sun-shine, he prays 
for rain, and when it is rain, he prays for sun-shine ; he follows the 
same idea in every thing that he prays for ; for what is the amount 
of all his prayers, hut an attempt to make the Almighty change 
his mind, and act otherwise than he does ? It is as if he were to 
say— thou knowest not so well as I. 

But some perhaps will say — Are we to have no word of God — ■ 
No revelation ! 1 answer, Yes : there is a word of God ; there is 
a revelation. 

The word of Gob is the creation we behold : And it is in 
this word, which no human invention can counterfeit or alter, that 
God speaketh universally to man. ' 

Human language is local and changeable, and is therefore inca- 
pable of being used as the means of unchangeable and universal 
information. The idea that God sent Jesus Christ to publish, as 
they say, the glad tidings to all nations, from one end of the earth 
to the other, is consistent only with the ignorance of those who 
knew nothing of the extent of the world, and who believed, as 
those world-saviours believed, and continued to believe, for seve- 
ral centuries, (and that in contradiction to the discoveries of phi- 
losophers, and the experience of navigators) that the earth was 
flat like a trencher ; and that a man might walk to the end of 
it: 

But how was Jesus Christ to make any thing known to all na- 
tions ? He could speak but one language, which was Hebrew ; 
and there are in the world several hundred languages. Scarcely 
any two nations speak the same language, or understand each oth- 
er 5 and as to translations^ every man who knows any thing of lan- 
guages, knows that it was impossible to translate from one lan- 
guage to another, not only without losing a great part of the orig- 
inal, but frequently of mistaking the sense ; and besid 2S all this, 
the art of printing was wholly unknown at the time Christ lived. 

It is always necessary that the means that are to accomplish 
any end, be equal to the accomplishment of that end, or the end 
cannot be accomplished. It is in this, that the difference between 
finite and infinite power and wisdom discovers itself. Man fre- 
quently fails in accomplishing his ends, from a natural inability of 
the power to the purpose ; and frequently from the want of wis- 
dom to apply power properly. But it is impossible for infinite 
power and wisdom to fail as man faileth. The means it useth are 
always equal to the end ; but human language, more especially 
as there is not an universal language, is incapable of being used 
as an universal means of unchangeable and uniform information, 



44 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



and therefore it is not the means that God useth in manifesting 
himself universally to man. 

It is only in the creation that all our ideas and conceptions of 
a ivord of God can unite. The Creation speaketh an universal 
language., independently of human speech or human language, 
multiplied and various as they be. It is an ever-existing original, 
which every man can read. " It cannot be forged ; it cannot be 
counterfeited ; it cannot be lost ; it cannot be altered ; it cannot 
be suppressed. It does not depend upon the will of man whether 
it shall be published or not ; it publishes itself from one end of 
the earth to the other. It preaches to all nations and to all 
worlds ; and this ivord of God reveals to man all that is necessary 
for man to Know of God. 

Do we want to contemplate his power ? We see it in the im- 
mensity of the Creation. Do we want to contemplate his wis- 
dom ? We see it in the unchangeable order by which the incom- 
prehensible whole is governed. Do we want to contemplate his 
munificence ? We see it in the abundance with which he fills the 
earth. Do we want to contemplate his mercy ? We see it in his 
not withholding that abundance even from the unthankful. In' 
fine, do we want to know what God is ? Search not the book call- 
ed the Scripture, which any human hand might make, but the 
Scripture called the Creation. 

The only idea man can affix to the name of God, is that of a 
first cause , the cause- of all things. And, incomprehensible and 
difficult as it is^for a man to conceive what a first cause is, he ar- 
rives at the belief of it, from the tenfold greater difficulty of dis- 
believing it. It is difficult beyond description to conceive that 
space can have no end ; but it is more difficult to conceive an end. 
It is difficult beyond the power of man to conceive an eternal du- 
ration of what we call time ; but it is more impossible to conceive 
a time when there shall be no time. In like manner of reasoning, 
every thing we behold carries in itself the internal evidence tfiat 
it did not make itself. Every man is an evidence to himself, that 
he did not make himself ; neither could his father make himself, 
nor his grandfather, nor any of his race ; neither -could any tree, 
plant, or animal make itself; and it is the conviction arising from 
this evidence, that carries us on, as it were, by necessity, to the 
belief of a first cause eternally existing, of a nature totally differ- 
ent to any material existence we know of, and by the power of 
which all things exist ; and this first cause man calls God. 

It is only by the exercise of reason, that man can discover God. 
Take away that reason, and he would be incapable of understand- 
ing any thing ; and, in this case, it would be just as consistent to 
read even the book called the Bible to a horse as to a man. How 
then is it that those people pretend to reject reason ? 

Almost the only parts in the book called the Bible, that convey 
to us any idea of God, are some chapters m Job, and the 19th 



THE AGE OP REASON. 



45 



Psalm ; I recollect no other. Those parts are true deishcal com- 
positions ; for they treat of the Deity through his works. They 
take the book of Creation as the word of God, they refer to no 
other book, and all the inferences they make are drawn from that 
volume. 

I insert, in this place, the 19th Psalm, as paraphrased into Eng- 
lish verse by Addison. I recollect not the prose, and where I 
write this I have not the opportunity of seeing it. 

The spacious firmament on high, 
With all the blue ethereal sky, 
And spangled heavens, a shining frame 
Their great original proclaim. 
The unwearied sun, from day to day 
Does his Creator's power display, 
And publishes to every land, 
The work of an Almighty hand. 
Soon as the evening shades prevail, 
The moon takes up the wondrous tale, 
And nightly to the list'ning earth 
Repeats the story of her birth ; 
Whilst all the stars that round her burn, 
And all the planets, in their turn, 
Confirm the tidings as they roll, 
And spread the truth from pole to pole. 
What though in solemn silence all 
Move round this dark terrestrial ball ; 
What though no real voice, nor sound, 
Amidst their radiant orbs be found, 
In reason's ear they all rejoice, 
And utter forth a glorious voice, 
For ever singing as they shine, 
The hand that made us is divine. 

What more does man want to know than that the hand, or pow- 
er, that made these things is divine, is omnipotent ? Let him be- 
lieve this with the force it is impossible to repel, if he permits his 
reason to act, and his rule of moral life will follow of course. 

The allusions in Job have all of them the same tendency with 
this Psalm; that of deducing or proving a truth, that would be 
otherwise unknown, from truths already known. 

I recollect not enough of the passages in Job, to insert them 
correctly : but there is one occurs to me that is applicable to the 
subject I am speaking upon. " Canst thou by searching find out 
God ?" " Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection ?" 

I know not how the. printers have pointed this passage, for I 
keep no Bible ; but it contains two distinct questions, that admit 
of distinct answers. 




46 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



First — Canst thou by searching find out God ? Yes ; because 
in the first place, I know I did not make myself, and yet I havo 
existence ; and by searching into the nature of other things, I find 
that no other thing could make itself ; and yet millions of other 
things exist ; therefore it is, that I know, by positive conclusion 
resulting from this search, that there is a power superior to all 
those things, and that power is God. 

Secondly- — Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection ? No \ 
not only because the power and wisdom He has manifested in the 
structure of the Creation that I behold, is to me incomprehensi- 
ble, but because even this manifestation, great as it is, is probably 
but a small display of that immensity of power and wisdom, by 
which millions of other worlds to me invisible by their distance, 
were created and continue to exist. 

It is evident, that both of these questions were put to the reason 
of the person to whom they are supposed to have been address- 
ed ; and it is only by admitting the first question to be answered 
affirmatively, that the second could follow. It would have been 
unnecessary, and even absurd, to have put a second question, more 
difficult than the first, if the first question had been answered 
negatively. The two questions have different objects ; the first 
refers to the existence of God, the second to his attributes ; rea- 
son can discover the one, but it falls infinitely short in discover- 
ing the whole of the other. 

I recollect not a single passage in all the writings ascribed to 
the men called apostles, that convey any idea of what God is. 
Those writings are chiefiy controversial ; and the subject they 
dwell upon, that of a man dying in agony on a cross, is better suit- 
ed to the gloomy genius of a monk in a cell, by whom it is not 
impossible they were written, than to any man breathing the open 
air of the Creation. The only passage that occurs to me, that has 
any reference to the works of God, by which only his power and 
wisdom can be known, is related to have been spoken by Jesus 
Christ, as a remedy against distrustful care. " Behold the lilies of 
the field, they toil not, neither do they spin." This, however, is 
far inferior to the allusions in Job, and in the 19th Psalm; but it is 
similar in idea, and the modesty of the imagery is correspondent 
to the modesty of the man. 

As to the Christian system of faith, it appears to me as a species 
of atheism — a sort of religious denial of God. It professes to be- 
lieve in a man rather than in God. It is a compound made up 
chiefly of manism with but little deism, and is as near to atheism 
as twilight is to darkness. It introduces between man and his 
Maker an opaque body, which it calls a Redeemer, as the moon 
introduces her opaque self between the earth and the sun, and it 
produces by this means a religious or an irreligious eclipse of 
light. It has put the whole orbit of reason into shade. 

The effect of this obscurity has been that of turning overy thing 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



47 



upside down, and representing it in reverse ; and among tne rev- 
olutions it has thus magically produced, it has made a revolution 
in Theology. 

That which is now called natural philosophy, embracing the 
whole circle of science, of which Astronomy occupies the chief 
place, is the study of the works of God, and of the power and 
wisdom of God in his works, and is the true theology. 

As to the theology that is now studied in its place, it is the study 
of human opinions and of human fancies concerning God\ It is not 
the study of God himself in the works that he has made, but in 
the works or writings that man has made ; and it is not among the 
least of the mischiefs that the Christian system has done to the 
world, that it has abandoned the original and beautiful system of 
theology, like a beautiful innocent, to distress and reproach, to 
make room for the hag of superstition. 

The book of Job, and the 19th Psalm, which even the church 
admits to be more ancient than the chronological order in which 
they stand in the book called the Bible, are theological orations 
conformable to the original system of theology. The internal ev- 
idence of those orations proves to a demonstration that the study 
and contemplation of the works of Creation, and of the power and 
wisdom of God, revealed and manifested in those works, made a 
great part of the religious devotion of the times in which they were 
written ; and it was this devotional study and contemplation that 
led to the discovery of the principles upon which, what are now 
called Sciences, are established ; and it is to the discovery of these 
principles that almost all the Arts that contribute to the conveni- 
ence of human life, owe their existence. Every principal art has 
some science for its parent, though the person who mechanically 
performs the work does not always, and but very seldom, perceive 
the connexion. 

It is a fraud of the Christian system to call the sciences human 
invention ; it is only the application of them that is human. Ev- 
ery Science has for its basis a system of principles as fixed and un- 
alterable as those by which the universe is regulated and govern- 
ed Man cannot make principles ; he can only discover them : 

For example — Every person who looks at an Almanack sees 
an account when an eclipse will take place, and he sees also that 
it never fails to take place according to the account there given. 
This shows that man is acquainted with the laws by which the 
heavenly bodies move. But it would be something worse than ig- 
norance, were any church on earth to say, that those laws are an 
human invention. It would also be ignorance,or something worse, 
to say that the scientific principles, by the aid of which man is en- 
abled to calculate and foreknow when an eclipse will take place, 
are an human invention. Man cannot invent any thing that is 
eternal and immutable ; and the scientific principles he employs 
for this purpose must, and are, of necessity, as eternal and immu- 



48 THE AGE OF REASON. 

table as the laws by which the heavenly bodies move, or they 
could not be used as they are to ascertain the time-when, and the 
manner how, an eclipse will take place. 

The scientific principles that man employs to obtain the fore- 
knowledge of an eclipse, or of any thing else, relating to the mo- 
tion of the heavenly bodies^ are contained chiefly in that part of 
science which is called Trigonometry, or the properties of a tri- 
" angle, which when applied-^o the study of the heavenly bodies, is 
called Astronomy 5 when applied to direct the course of a ship on 
the ocean, it is called Navigation ; when applied to the construc- 
tion of figures drawn by rule and compass, it is called Geometry ; 
when applied* to the construction of plans of edifices, it is called 
Architecture ; when applied to the measurement of any portion 
of the surface of the earth, it is called Land-surveying. In fine, ! 1 
it is the soul of science ; it is an eternal truth ; it contains the | 
mathematical demonstration of which man speaks, and the extent 
of its uses is unknown. 

It may be said, that man can make or draw a triangle, and 
therefore a triangle is an human invention. 

But the triangle, when drawn, is no other than the image of the 
principle ; it is a delineation to the eye, and from thence to the 
mind, of a principle that would otherwise be imperceptible. The 
triangle does not make the principle, any more than a candle tak- 
en into a room that was dark, makes the chairs and tables that 
before were invisible. All the properties of the triangle exist in- | i 
dependency of the figure, and existed before any triangle was 1 
drawn or thought of by man. Man had no more to do in the 1 
formation of those properties or principles, than he had to do in 1 
making the laws by which theJieavenly bodies move 5 and there- 1 
fore the one must have the same divine origin as the other. 

In the same manner as it may be said, that man can make a tri- 1 
angle, so also may it be said, he can make the mechanical instru- ] 
ment called a lever ; but the principle, by which the lever acts, is j i 
a thing distinct from the instrument, and would exist if the instru- 
ment did not : it attaches itself to the instrument after it is made ; c 
the instrument, therefore, can act no otherwise than it does act ; | { 
neither can all the efforts of human invention make it act other- li 
wise — That which, in all such cases, man calls the effect, is no a 
other than the principle itself rendered perceptible to the senses. 11 

Since then man cannot make principles, from whence did he p 
gain a knowledge of them, so as to be able to apply them, not only J 
to things on earth, but to ascertain the motion of bodies so im- 0 
mensely distant from him as all the heavenly bodies are ? From I 
whence, I ask, could he gain that knowledge, but from the study 
of the true theology ? . j 1 

It is the structure of the universe that has taught this knowledge 
to man. That structure is an ever-existing exhibition of every 1 
principle upon which every part of mathematical science is foun- tt 



THE AGE OF REASON* 49 



ded. The offspring of this science is mechanics ; for mechanics 
is no other than the principles of science applied practically. 
The man who proportions the several parts of a mill, uses the same 
scientific principles, as if he had the power of constructing an 
universe ; but as he cannot give to matter that invisible agency, 
by which all the component parts of the immense machine of the 
universe have influence upon each other and act in motional unison 
together, without any apparent contact, and to which man ha£ 
given the name of attraction, gravitation, and repulsion, he sup- 
plies the place of that agency by the humble imitation of teeth and 
cogs. All the parts of man's microcosm must visibly touch ; but 
could he gain a knowledge of that agency, so as to be able to ap- 
ply it in practice, we might then say, that another canonical book 
of the word of God had been discovered. 

If man could alter the properties of the lever, so also could he 
alter the properties of the triangle ; for a lever (taking that sort 
of lever which is called a steel-yard, for the sake of explanation) 
forms, when in motion, a triangle. . The line it descends from, (one 
point of that line being in the fulcrum) the line it descends to, and 
the cord of the arc, which the end of the lever describes in the 
air, are the three sides of a triangle. The other arm of the lever 
describes also a triangle ; and the corresponding sides of those 
two triangles, calculated scientifically, or measured geometrical- 
ly ; and also the sines, tangents, and secants generated from the 
angles, and geometrically measured, have the same proportions to 
each other, as the different weights have that will balance each 
other on the lever, leaving the weight of the lever out of the case. 

It may also be said, that man can make a wheel and axis ; that 
he can put wheels of different magnitudes together, and produce 
a mill. Still the case comes back to the same point, which is, that 
he did not make the principle that gives the wheels those powers. 
That principle is as unalterable as in the former cases, or rather it 
is the same principle under a different appearance to the eye. 

The power that two wheels, of different magnitudes, have up- 
on each other, is in the same proportion as if the semi-diameter of 
the two wheels were joined together and made in that kind of 
lever I have described, suspended at the part where the semi-di- 
ameters join ; for the two wheels, scientifically considered, are 
no other than the two circles generated by the motion of the com- 
pound lever. j 
It is from the study of the true theology that all our knowledge 
of science is derived, and it is from that knowledge that all the 
arts have cn^inated. > 
The Almighty lecturer, by displaying the principles of science 
in the structure of the universe, has invited man to study and to 
^imitation. It is as if he had said to the inhabitants of this globe, 
that we call ouis, " I have made an earth for man to dwell upon, 
" and I have rendered the starry heavens visible, to teach him 
r 5 



50 THE AGE OF REASON. 

u science and the arts. He can now provide for his own comfort, 

U AND LEARN FROM MY MUNIFICENCE TO ALL, TO BE KIND TO EACH I 
-OTHER." 

Of what use is it, unless it be to teach man something, that his 
eye is endowed with the power of beholding, to an incomprehen- 
sible distance, an immensity of worlds revolving in the ocean of 
space ? Or of what use is it that this immensity of worlds is vis- 
ible to man ? What has man to do with the Pleiades, with Orion, 
with Sirius, with the star he calls the north star, with the moving 
orbs he has named Saturn^ Jupiter, Mars, Yenus, and Mercury, 
if no uses are to follow from their being visible ? A less power of 
vision would have been sufficient for man, if the immensity he 
now possesses were given only to waste itself, as it were, on an j 
immense desert of space glittering with shows. 

It is only by contemplating what he calls the starry heavens, as 
the book and school of science, that he discovers any use in their 
being visible to him, or any advantage resulting from his immen- 
sity of vision. But when he contemplates the subject in this 
light, he sees an additional motive for saying, that nothing was 
made in vain ; for in vain would be this power of vision if it taught 
man nothing. 

As the Christian system of faith has made a revolution in the- 
ology, so also has it made a revolution in the state of learning. 
That which is now called learning was not learning originally. 
Learning does not consist, as the schools now make it consist, in 
the knowledge of languages, but in the knowledge of things to 
which language gives names. 

The Greeks were a learned people, but learning with them did 
not consist in speaking Greek, any more than in a Roman's speak- 
ing Latin, or a Frenchman's speaking French, or an Englishman's 
speaking English. From what we know of the Greeks, it does 
not appear that they knew or studied any language but their own, 
and this was one cause of their becoming so learned ; it afford- 
ed them more time to apply themselves to better studies. The 
schools of the Greeks were schools of science and philosophy, 
and not of languages ; and it is in the knowledge of the things j 
that science and philosophy teach, that learning consists. 

Almost all the scientific learning that now exists, came to us 
from the Greeks, or the people who spoke the Greek language. — 
It, therefore, became necessary for the people of other nations, 
who spoke a different language, that some among them should 
learn the Greek language, in order that the learning the Greeks 
had, might be made known in those nations, by translating the 
Greek books of science and philosophy into the mother tongue of 
each nation. 

The study therefore of the Greek language (and in the same 
manner for the Latm) was no other than the drudgery business 
of a linguist ; and the language thus obtained, was no other than 



THE AGE OF REASON, 51 

the means, as it were the tools, employed to obtain the learning 
the Greeks had. It made no part of the learning itself ; and 
was so distinct from it, as to make it exceedingly probable that 
the persons who had studied Greek sufficiently to translate those 
works, such, for instance, as Euclid's Elements, did not under- 
stand any of the learning the works contained. 

As there is now nothing new to be learned from the dead lan- 
guages, all the useful books being already translated, the lan- 
guages are become useless, and the time expended in teaching 
and learning them is wasted. So far as the study of languages 
may contribute to the progress and communication of knowledge, 
(for it has nothing to do with the creation of knowledge,) it is 
only in the living languages that new knowledge is to be found ; 
and certain it is, that, in general, a youth will learn more of a 
living language in one year, than of a dead language in seven ; 
and it is but seldom that the teacher knows much of it himself. 
The difficulty of learning the dead languages does not arise from 
any superior abstruseness in the languages themselves, but in 
their being dead, and the pronunciation entirely lost. It would 
be the same thing with any other language when it becomes 
dead. The best Greek linguist that now exists, does not under- 
stand Greek so well as a Grecian ploughman did, or a Grecian 
milkmaid ; and the same for the Latin, compared with a plough- 
man or milkmaid of the Romans : It would therefore be advan- 
tageous to the state of learning to abolish the study of the dead 
languages, and to make learning consist, as it originally did, in 
scientific knowledge. 

The apology that is sometimes made for continuing to teach the 
dead languages is, that they are taught at a time, when a child is 
not capable of exerting any other mental faculty than that of 
memory ; but that is altogether erroneous. The human mind 
has a natural disposition to scientific knowledge, and to the things 
connected with it. The first and favorite amusement of a child, 
even before it begins to play, is that of imitating the works of 
man. It builds houses with cards or sticks ; it navigates the 
little ocean of a bowl of water with a paper boat, or dams the 
stream of a gutter, and contrives something which it calls a mill ; 
and it interests itself in the fate of its works with a care that re- 
sembles affection. It afterwards goes to school, where its genius 
is killed by the barren study of a dead language, and the philoso- 
pher is lost in the linguist. 

But the apology that is now made for continuing to teach the 
dead languages, could not be the cause, at first, of cutting down 
learning to the narrow and humble sphere of linguistry ; the 
cause, therefore, must be sought for elsewhere. In all research- 
es of this kind, the best evidence that can be produced, is the in- 
ternal evidence the thing carries with itself, and the evidence of 



52 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



circumstances that unites with it ; both of which, in this case, 
are not difficult to be discovered. 

Putting then aside, as a matter of distinct consideration, the 
outrage offered to the moral justice of God, by supposing him to 
make the innocent suffer for the guilty, and also the loose moral- 
ity and low contrivance of supposing him to change himself into 
the shape of a man, in order to make an excuse to himself for not 
executing his supposed sentence upon Adam ; putting, I say, 
those things aside, as matter of distinct consideration, it is cer- 
tain that what is called the Christian system of faith, including 
in it the whimsical account of the creation — the strange story of 
Eve — the snake and the Apple — the ambiguous idea of a man- 
god — the corporeal idea of the death of a god — the mythologi- 
cal idea of a family of gods, and the Christian system of arithme- 
tic, that three are one, and one is three, are all irreconcilable, not 
only to the divine gift of reason, that God hath given to Man, 
but to the knowledge that man gains of the power and wisdom of 
God, by the aid of the sciences, and by studying the structure of 
the universe that God has made. 

The setters-up, therefore, and the advocates of the Christian 
system of faith, could not but foresee that the continually progres- 
sive knowledge that man would gain, by the aid of science, of 
the power and wisdom of God, manifested in the structure of the 
universe, and in all the works of Creation, would militate against, 
and call into question, the truth of their system of faith ; and 
therefore it became necessary to their purpose to cut learning 
down to a size less dangerous to their project, and this they ef- 
fected by restricting the idea of learning to the dead study of 
dead languages. 

They riot only rejected the study of science out of the Chris- 
tian schools, but they persecuted it ; and it is only within about 
the last two centuries that the study has been revived. So late 
as 1610, Galileo, a Florentine, discovered and introduced the 
use of telescopes, and by applying them to observe the motions 
and appearance of the heavenly bodies, afforded additional means 
for ascertaining the true structure of the universe. Instead of 
being esteemed for those discoveries, he was sentenced to re- 
nounce them, or the opinions resulting from them, as a damnable 
heresy. And prior to that time Vigilius was condemned to be 
burned for asserting the antipodes, or in other words, that the 
earth was a globe, and habitable in every part where there was 
land ; yet the truth of this is now too well known even to be 
told. 

If the belief of errors not morally bad did no mischief, it would 
make no part of the moral duty of man to oppose and remove 
them. There was no moral ill in believing the earth was <flat like 
a trencher, any more than there was moral virtue in believing it 
was round like a globe ; neither was there any moral ill in be- 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



53 



lieving that the Creator made no other world -than. this, any more 
than there was moral virtue in believing that he made millions, 
and that the infinity of space is filled with worlds. But when a 
system of religion is made to grow out of a supposed system of 
creation that is not true, and to unite itself therewith in a manner 
almost inseparable therefrom, the case assumes an entirely differ- 
ent ground. It is then that errors, not morally bad, become 
fraught with the same mischiefs as if they were. It is then that 
the truth, though otherwise indifferent itself, becomes an essen- 
tial, by becoming the criterion, that either confirms by corres- 
ponding evidence, or denies by contradictory evidence, the real- 
ity of the religion itself. In this view of the case, it is the moral 
duty of man to obtain every possible evidence that the structure 
of the heavens, or any other part of creation affords, with respect 
to systems of religion. But this, the supporters or partizans of 
the Christian system, as if dreading the result, incessantly oppo- 
sed, and not only rejected the sciences, but persecuted the pro- 
fessors. Had Newton or Descartes lived three or four hundred 
years ago, and pursued their studies as they did, it is most proba- 
ble they would not have lived to finish them ; and had Franklin 
drawn lightning from the clouds at the same time, it would have 
been at the hazard of expiring for it in flames. 

Latter times have laid all the blame upon the Goths and Yan- 
dals ; but, however unwilling the partizans of the Christian sys- 
tem may be to believe or to acknowledge it, it is nevertheless true, 
that the age of ignorance commenced with the Christian system. 
There was more knowledge in the world before that period, than 
for many centuries afterwards ; and as to religious knowledge, the 
Christian system, as already said, was only another species of my- 
thology ; and the mythology to which it succeeded, was a corrup- 
tion of an ancient system of theism. # 

* It is impossible for us now to know at what time the heathen mythology began ; 
but it is certain, from the internal evidence that it carries, that it did not begin in 
the same state or condition in which it ended. All the gods of that mythology, 
except Saturn, were of modern invention. The supposed reign of Saturn was prior 
to that which is called the heathen mythology, and was so far a species of theism, 
that it admitted the belief of only one God. Saturn is supposed to have abdicated 
the government in favour of his three sons and one daughter, Jupiter, Pluto, Neptune, 
and Juno ; after this, thousands of other gods and demi-gods were imaginably created, 
and the calendar of gods increased as fast as the calendar of saints, and the calendars 
of courts have increased since. 

* All the corruptions that have taken place, in theology and in religion, have been 
produced by admitting of what man calls revealed religion. The Mythologies pre- 
tended to more revealed religion than the Christians do. They had their oracles and 
xheir priests, who were supposed to receive and deliver the word of God verbally, on 
almost all occasions. 

Since then all corruptions drawn from Molock to modern predestinarianism, and 
the human sacrifices of the heathens to the Christian sacrifice of the Creator, have 
been produced by admitting of what is called revealed religion, the most effectual 
means to prevent all such evils and impositions is, not to admit of any other revelation 
than that which is manifested in the book of creation, and to contemplate the creation 
as the only true and real work of God that ever did, or ever will exist ; and that every 
thing else, called the word of God, is fable and imposition. 



54 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



It is owing to this long interregnum of science, and to no other 
cause , that we have now to look through a vast chasm of many 
hundred years to the respectable characters we call the ancients. 
Had the progression of knowledge gone on proportionally with 
the stock that before existed, that chasm would have been rilled 
up with characters rising superior in knowledge to each other ; 
and those ancients we now so much admire, would have appeared 
respectably in the back ground of the scene. But the Christian 
system laid all waste ; and if we take our stand about the begin- 
ning of the sixteenth century, we look back through that long 
chasm, to the times of the ancients, as over a vast sandy desart, 
in which not a shrub appears to intercept the vision to the fertile 
hills beyond. 

It is an inconsistency scarcely possible to be credited, that any 
thing should exist, under the name of a religion, that held it to be 
irreligious to study and contemplate the structure of the universe 
that God had made. But the fact is too well established to be 
denied. The event that served more than any other to break the 
first link in this long chain of despotic ignorance, is that known 
by the name of the Reformation by Luther. From that time, 
though it does not appear to have made any part of the intention 
of Luther, or of those who are called reformers, the sciences be- 
gan to revive, and liberality, their natural associate, began to 
appear. This was the only public good the reformation did 
for, with respect to religious good, it might as well not have taken 
place. The mythology still continued the same ; and a multipli- 
city of National Popes grew out of the downfal of the Pope of 
Christen dom. 

Having thus shown from the internal evidence of things, the 
cause that produced a change in the state of learning, and the 
motive for substituting the. study of the dead languages in the 
place of the sciences, I proceed, in addition to the several obser- 
vations already made in the former part of this work, to compare 
or rather to confront the evidence that the structure of the uni- 
verse affords, with the Christian system of religion ; but, as I 
cannot begin this part better than by referring to the ideas that oc- 
curred to me at an early part of life, and which I doubt not have 
occurred in some degree to almost every other person at one 
time or other, I shall state what those ideas were, and add thereto 
such other matter as shall arise out of the subject, giving to the 
whole, by way of preface, a short introduction. 

My father being of the Quaker profession, it was my good for- 
tune to have an exceeding good moral education, and a tolerable 
stock of useful learning. Though I went to the grammar school,* 
I did not learn Latin, not only because I had no inclination to 
learn languages, but because of the objection the Quakers have 

* The same school, Thetford in Norfolk > that the present Counsellor Mingay went 
to, and under the same master. 



THE AGE OP REASON. 



55 



j against the books in which the language is taught. But this did 
not prevent me from being acquainted with the subjects of all the 

j Latin books used in the school. 

The natural bent of my mind was to science. I had some turn, 

| and I believe some talent for poetry ; but this I rather repressed 

i than encouraged, as leading too much into the field of imagination. 

j As soon as I was able, I purchased a pair of globes, and attend- 
ed the philosophical lectures of Martin and Ferguson, and be- 
came afterwards acquainted with Dr. Bevis, of the society, called 
the Royal Society, then living in the Temple, and an excellent 
astronomer. 

I had no disposition for what is called politics. It presented to 
my mind no other idea than is contained in the word Jockeyship. 
When, therefore, I turned my thoughts towards matters of gov- 
ernment, I had to form a system for myself, that accorded with the 
moral and philosophic principles in which I had been educated. 
I saw, or at least I thought I saw, a vast scene opening itself to 
the world in the affairs of America ; and it appeared to me, that 
Unless the Americans changed the plan they were then pursuing, 
with respect to the government of England, and declare themselves 
% independent, they would not only involve themselves in a multi- 
plicity of new difficulties, but shut out the prospect that 'was then 
offering itself to mankind through their means. It was from these 
motives that I published the w T ork known by the name of " Com- 
mon Seme" which is the first work I ever did publish ; and so far 
as I can judge of myself, I believe I- should never have been 
known in the world as an author, on any subject whatever, had it 
not been for the affairs of America. I wrote " Common Sense" 
the latter end of the year 1775, and published it the first of January p 
1776. Independence was declared the fourth of July following. 

Any person, who has made observations on the state and pro- 
gress of the human mind, by observing his own, cannot but have 
observed, that there are two distinct classes of what are called 
Thoughts ; those that we produce in ourselves by reflection and 
the act of thinking, and those that bolt into the mind of their own 
accord. I have always made it a rule to treat those voluntary 
visitors with civility, taking care to examine, as well as I was able, 
if they were worth entertaining ; and it is from them I have ac- * 
quired almost all the knowledge that I have. As to the learning 
that any "person gains from school education, it serves only, like 
a small capital, to put him in the way of beginning learning for 
himself afterwards. Every person of learning is finally his own 
teacher, the reason of which is, that principles, being of a distinct 
quality to circumstances, cannot be impressed upon the memory ; 
their place of mental residence is the understanding, and they 
are never so lasting as when they begin by conception. Thus 
much for the introductory part. 

From the time I was capable of conceiving an idea, and acting 



56 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



upon it by reflection, I either doubted the truth of the Christian 
system, or thought it to be a strange affair ; I scarcely knew which 
it was : but I well remember, when about seven or eight years of 
age, hearing a sermon read by a relation of mine, who was a 
great devotee of the church, upon the subject of what is called 
redemption by ike death of the Son of God. After the sermon was 
ended, I went into the garden, and as I was going down the gar- 
den steps (for I perfectly recollect the spot) I revolted at the re- 
collection of what I had heard, and thought to myself that it was 
making God Almighty act like a passionate man that killed his 
son, when he could not revenge himself any other way ; and as 
I was sure a man would be hanged that did such a thing, I could 
not see for what purpose they preached such sermons. This was 
not one of those kind of thoughts that had any thing in it of 
childish levity ; it was to me a serious' reflection, arising from the 
idea I had, that God was too good to do such an action, and also 
too almighty to be under any necessity of doing it. I believe in 
the same manner at this moment ; and I moreover believe, that 
any system of religion, that has any thing in it that shocks the 
mind of a child, cannot be a true, system. 

It seems as if parents of the Christian profession were asham- 
ed to tell their children any thing about the principles of their re- 
ligion. They sometimes instruct them in morals, and talk to them 
of the goodness of what they call Providence ; for the Christian 
mythology has five deities — there is God the Father, God the 
Son, God the Holy Ghost, the God Providence, and the Goddess 
Nature. But the Christian story of God the Father putting his 
son to death, or employing people to do it (for that is the plain 
language of the story) cannot be told by a parent to a child ; and 
to tell him that it was done to mpJve mankind happier and better, 
is making the story still worse, as if mankind could be improved 
by the example of murder ; and to tell him that all this is a mys- 
tery, is only making an excuse for the incredibility of it. 
- How different is this to the pure and simple profession of De- 
ism ! The true Deist has but one Deity ; and his religion con- 
sists in contemplating the power, wisdom, and benignity of the 
Deity in his works, and in endeavoring to imitate him in every 
* thing moral, scientifical, and mechanical. 

The religion that approaches the nearest of all others to true 
Deism in the moral and benign part thereof, is that professed by 
the Quakers ; but they have contracted themselves too much, by 
leaving the works of God out of their system. Though I rever- 
ence their philanthropy, I cannot help smiling at the conceit, that 
if the taste of a Quaker could have been consulted at the crea- 
tion, what a silent and drab-coloured creation it would have been ! 
Not a flower would have blossomed its gaities, nor a bird been 
permitted to sing. 

Quitting these reflections, I proceed to other matters. After I 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



57 



had made myself master of the use of the globes, and of the or- 
rery , # and conceived an idea of the infinity of ."space, and the 
eternal divisibility of matter, and obtained, at least, ! a general 
knowledge of what is called natural philosophy, I began to com-* 
pare, or, as I have before said, to confront the eternal evidence 
those things afford with the Christian system of faith. 

Though it is not a direct article of the Christian system, that 
this world that we inhabit, is the whole of the habitable creation, 
yet it is so worked up therewith, from what is called the Mosaic 
account of the Creation, the story of Eve and the apple, and the 
counterpart of that story, the death of the son of God, that to 
believe otherwise, that is, to believe that God created a plurality 
of worlds, at least as numerous as what we call stars, renders 
the Christian system of faith at once little and ridiculous, and 
scatters it in the mind like feathers in the air. The two beliefs 
cannot be held together in the same mind ; and he who thinks 
that he believes both, has thought but little of either. 

Though the belief of a plurality of worlds was familiar to the 
ancients, it is only within the last three centuries that the extent 
and dimensions of this globe that we inhabit have been ascer- 
tained. Several vessels following the tract of the ocean, have 
sailed entirely round the world, as a man may march in a circle, 
ana* come round by the contrary side of the circle to the spot he 
set out from. The circular dimensions of our world, in the wid- 
est part, as a man would measure the widest round of an apple 
or a ball, is only twenty-five thousand and twenty English miles, 
reckoning sixty-nine miles and an half to an equatorial degree, 
and may be sailed round in the space of about three years.j 

A world of this extent may, at first thought, appear to us to be 
great ; but if we compare it with the immensity of space in which 
it is suspended, like a bubble or balloon in the air, it is infinitely 
less, in proportion, than the smallest grain of sand is to the size 
of the world, or the finest particle of dew to the whole ocean, 
and is therefore but small ; and as will be hereafter shown, is on- 
ly one of a system of worlds, of which the universal creation is 
composed. 

It is not difficult to gain some faint idea of the immensity of 

* As this book may fall into the hands of persons who do not know what an orrery 
is, it is for their information I add this note, as the name gives no idea of the uses of 
the thing. The orrery has its name from the person who invented it. It is a ma- 
chinery of clock-work, representing the universe in miniature, and in which the revo- 
lution of the earth round itself and round the sun, the revolution of the moon round 
the" earth, the revolution of the planets round the sun, their relative distances from the 
eun, as the centre of the whole system, their relative distances from each other, and 
their different magnitudes, are represented as they really exist in what we call the 
heavens. 

f Allowing a ship to sail, on an average, three miles in an hour, she would sail en- 
tirely round the world in less than one year, if she could sail in a direct circle ; but 
she is obliged to follow the course of the ocean. 



53 



THE AGE OF REASOX. 



space in which this and all the other worlds are suspended, if we 
follow a progression of ideas. When we think of the size or di- 
mensions of a room, our ideas limit themselves to the walls, and 
there they stop : but when our eye, or our imagination darts into 
space, that is, when it looks upward into what we call the open 
air, we cannot conceive any walls or boundaries it can have ; and, 
if for the sake of resting our ideas, we suppose a boundary, the 
question immediately renews itself, and asks, what is beyond that 
boundary ? and, in the same manner, what is beyond the next 
boundary ? and so on, till the fatigued imagination returns and 
says, there is no end. Certainly, then, the Creator was not pent 
for room, when he made this world no larger than it is ; and we 
have to seek the reason in something else. 

If we take a survey if our own world, or rather of this, of which 
the Creator has given us the use, as our portion in the immense 
system of Creation, we find every pail of it, the earth, the waters, 
and the air that surrounds it, filled, and as it were, crowded with 
life, down from the largest animals that we know of to the smallest 
insects the naked eye can behold, and from thence to others still 
smaller, and totally invisible without the assistance of the micro- 
scope. Every tree, every plant, every leaf, serves not only as an 
habitation, but as a world to some numerous race, till animal ex- 
istence becomes so exceedingly refined, that the effluvia of a blade 
of grass would be food for thousands. 

Since then no part of our earth is left unoccupied, why is it to 
be supposed that the immensity of space is a naked void, lying in 
eternal waste ? There is room for millions of worlds as large or 
larger than ours, and each of them millions of miles apart from 
each other. 

Having now arrived at this point, if we carry our ideas only 
one thought farther, we shall see, perhaps, the true reason, at 
least a very good reason, for our happiness : why the Creator, 
instead of making one immense world, extending over an immense 
quantity of space, has preferred dividing that quantity of matter 
into several distinct and separate worlds, which we call planets, 
of which our earth is one. But before I explain my ideas upon 
this subject, it is necessary (not for the sake of those that already 
know, but for those who do not) to show what the system of the 
universe is. 

That part of the universe that is called the solar system (mean- 
ing the system of worlds to which our earth belongs, and of which 
Sol, or in English language, the Sun, is the centre) consists, be- 
sides the Sun, of six distinct orbs, or planets, or worlds, besides 
the secondary bodies, called the satellites or moons, of which our 
earth has one that attends her in her annual revolution round the 
sun, in like manner as the other satellites or moons attend the 
planets or worlds to which they severally belong, as may be seen 
j>y the assistance of the telescope. 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



59 



The Sun is the centre, round which those six worlds or planets 
revolve at different distances therefrom, and in circles concen- 
trate to each other. Each world keeps constantly in nearly the 
same track round the Sun, and continues, at the same time, turn- 
ing round itself, in nearly an upright position, as a top turns 
round itself when it is spinning on the ground, and leans a little 
sideways. 

It is this leaning of the earth (23 1-2 degrees) that occasions 
summer and winter, and the different length of days, and nights. 
If the earth turned round itself in a position perpendicular to the 
plane or level of the circle it moves in around the Sun, as a top 
turns round when it stands erect on the ground, the days and 
nights would be always of the same length, twelve hours day and 
twelve hours night, and the seasons would be uniformly the same 
throughout the year. * 

Every time that a planet (our earth for example) turns round 
itself, it makes what we call day and night; and every time it 
goes entirely round the Sun, it makes what we call a year, con- 
sequently our world turns three hundred and sixty-five times round 
itself, in going once round the sun.* 

The names that the ancients- gave to those six worlds, and 
which are still called by the same names, are Mercury, Yenus, this 
world that we call ours, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. They ap- 
pear larger to the eye than the stars, being many millions miles 
nearer to our earth than any of the stars are. The planet Yenus 
is that which is called the evening star, and sometimes the morn- 
ing star, as she happens to set after, or rise before the Sun, 
which, in either case, is never more than three hours. 

The Sun, as before said, being the centre, the planet, or world, 
nearest the Sun, is Mercury ; his distance from the Sun is thir- 
ty-four million miles, and he moves round in a circle always at 
that distance from the Sun, as a top may be supposed to spin 
round in the track in which a horse goes in a mill. The second 
world is Yenus, she is fifty-seven million miles distant from the 
Sun, and consequently moves round in a circle much greater than 
that of Mercury. The third world is that we inhabit, and which 
is eighty-eight million miles distant from the Sun, and conse- 
quently moves round in a circle greater than that of Yenus.< — 
The fourth world is Mars; he is distant from the Sun one hundred 
and thirty-four million miles, and consequently moves round in a 
circle greater than that of our earth. The fifth is Jupiter; he is 
distant from the Sun five hundred and fifty-seven million miles, 
and consequently moves round in a circle greater than that of 
Mars. The sixth world is Saturn, he is distant from the Sun seven 
hundred and sixty-three million miles, and consequently moves 

♦Those who supposed that the Sun went round the earth every 24 hours made the 
same mistake in idea that a cook would do in fact, that should make the fire go round 
the meat, instead of the meat turning round itself towards the fire. 



60t 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



round in a circle that surrounds the circles, or orbits, of all the 
othei worlds or planets. 

The space, therefore, in the air, or in the immensity of space, 
that our solar system takes up for the several worlds to perform 
their revolutions in round the Sun, is of the extent in a straight 
line of the whole diameter of the orbit or circle, in which Saturn 
moves round the Sun, which being double his distance from the 
Sun, is fifteen hundred and twenty-six million miles ; and its cir- 
cular extent is nearly five thousand million ; and its globical con- 
tent is almost three thousand five hundred million times three 
thousand five hundred million square miles.* 

But this, immense as it is, is only one system of worlds. Beyond 
this, at a vast distance into space, far beyond all power of calcula- 
tion, are the stars called the fixed stars. They are called fixed, 
because they have no revolutionary motion, as the six worlds or 
planets have that I have been describing. Those fixed stars con- 
tinue always at the same distance from each other, and always in 
the same place, as the sun does in the centre of our system. The 
probability, therefore, is, that each of those fixed stars is also a 
sun, round which another system of worlds or planets, though too 
remote for us to discover, performs its revolutions, as our system 
of worlds does round our central sun. 

By this easy progression of ideas, the immensity of space will 
appear to 4 us to be filled with systems of worlds ; and that no part 
of spac e lies at waste, any more than any part of the globe or earth 
and water is left unoccupied. 

Having thus endeavoured to convey, in a familiar and easy man- 
ner, some idea of the structure of the universe, I return to explain 
what I before alluded to, namely, the great benefits arising to man 
in consequence of the Creator having made a. plurality of worlds, 
such as our system is, consisting of a central sun and six worlds, 
besides satellites, in preference to that of creating one world only 
of a vast extent. 

It is an idea I have never lost sight of, that all our knowledge 
of science is derived from the revolutions (exhibited to our eye, 
and from thence to our understanding) which those several planets 

* If it should be asked, how can man know these things % I have one plain answer 
to give, which is, that man knows how to calculate an eclipse, and also how to calcu- 
late to a minute of time when the planet Venus, in making her revolutions round the 
Sun, will come in a straight line between our earth and the Sun, and will appear to 
us about the size of a large pea passing across the face of the Sun. This happens 
but twice in about an hundred years, at the distance of about eight years from each 
other, and has happened twice in our time, both of which were foreknown by calcula- 
tion. It can also be known when they will happen again for a thousand years to 
come, or to any ottrr portion of time. As, therefore, man could not be able to do 
these things if he did not understand the solar system, and the manner in which the 
revolutions of the several planets or worlds are performed, the fact of calculating an 
eclipse, or a transit of Venus, is a proof in point that the knowledge exists ; and as to 
a^few thousand, or even a few million miles, more or less, it makes scarcely any sea- 
' i)t>le difference in such immense distances. 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



61 



or worlds, of which our system is composed, make in their circuit 
round the sun. 

Had then the quantity of matter which these six worlds contain 
been blended into one solitary globe, the consequence to us would 
have been, that either no revolutionary motion would been exist- 
ed, or not a sufficiency of it to give us the idea and the knowledge 
of science we now have ; and it is from the sciences that all the 
mechanical arts that contributes so much to our earthly felicity 
and comfort, are derived 

As, therefore, the Creator made nothing in vain, so also must it 
be believed that he organized the structure of the universe in the 
most advantageous manner for the benefit of man ; and as we see, 
and fiom experience feel, the benefits we derive from the struc- 
ture of the universe, formed as it is, which benefits we should not 
have had the opportunity of enjoying, if the structure, so far as 
relates to our system, had been a solitary globe — we can discover 
at least one reason why a plurality of worlds has been made, and 
that reason calls forth the devotional gratitude of man, as well as 
his admiration. 

But it is not to us, the inhabitants of tnis globe, only, that the 
benefits arising from a plurality of worlds are limited. The in- 
habitants of each of the worlds of which our system is composed, 
enjoy the same opportunities of knowledge as we do. They be- 
hold the revolutionary motions of our earth, as we behold theirs. 
All the planets revolve in sight of each other ; and, therefore, the 
same universal school of science presents itself to all. 

Neither does the knowledge stop here. The system of worlds 
next to us exhibits, in its revolutions, the same principles and 
school of science, to the inhabitants of their system, as our system 
does to us, and in like manner throughout the immensity of space. 

Our ideas, not only of the almightiness of the Creator, but of 
his wisdom and his beneficence, become enlarged in proportion 
as we contemplate the extent and the structure of the universe. 
The solitary idea of a solitary world, rolling or at rest in the im- 
mense ocean of space, gives place to the cheerful idea of a soci- 
ety of worlds, so happily contrived as to administer, even by their 
motion, instruction to man. We see our own earth filled with 
abundance ; but we forget to consider how much of that abun- 
dance is owing to the scientific knowledge the vast machinery of 
the universe has unfolded. 

But, in the midst of those reflections, what are we to think of 
the Christian system of faith, that forms itself upon the idea of ®nly 
one world, and that of no greater extent, as is before shown, than 
twenty-five thousand miles ? An extent which a man, walking at 
the rate of three miles an hour, for twelve hours in the day, could 
he keep on in a circular direction, would walk entirely round in 
less than two years. Alas ! what is this to the mighty ocean of 
space, and the almighty power of the Creator ! 
6 



62 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



From whence then could arise the solitary[and strange conceit, 
that the Almighty, who had millions of worlds equally dependent 
on his protection, should quit the care of ail the rest, and come to 
die in our world, because, they say one man and one woman had 
eaten an apple ! And, on the other hand, are we to suppose that 
every world in the boundless creation, had an Eve, an apple, a 
serpent and a redeemer ? In this case, the person who is irrever- 
ently called the Son of God, and sometimes God himself, would 
have nothing else to do than to travel from world to world, in an 
endless succession of death, with scarcely a momentary interval 
of life. 

It has been by rejecting the evidence, that the word or works 
of God in the creation affords to our senses, and the action of our 
reason upon that evidence, that so many wild and whimsical sys- 
tems of faith, and of religion, have been fabricated and set up. 
There may be many systems of religion, that so far from being 
morally bad, are in many respects morally good : but there can be 
but one that is true ; and that one necessarily must, as it ever 
will, be in all things consistent w 7 ith the ever existing word of God 
that we behold i*> his w^orks. But such is the strange construction 
of the Christian system of faith, that every evidence the Heavens 
afford to man, either directly contradicts it, or renders it absurd. 

It is possible to believe, and I always feel pleasure in encour- 
aging myself to believe it, that there have been men in the world 
who persuade themselves that, what is called a. pious fraud, might, 
at least under particular circumstances, be productive of some 
good. But the fraud being once established, could not afterwards 
be explained ; for it is with a pious fraud as with a bad action, it 
begets a calamitous necessity of going on. 

The persons who first preached the Christian system of faith, 
^d in some measure combined it with the morality preached by 
Jesus Christ, might persuade themselves that it was better than 
the heathen mythology that then prevailed. From the first 
preachers the fraud went on to the second, and to the third, till 
the idea of its being a pious fraud became lost in the belief of its 
being true ; and that belief became again encouraged by the in- 
terest of those who made a livelihood by preaching it. 

But though such a belief might, by such means, be rendered 
almost general among the laity, it is next to impossible to acount 
for the continual persecution carried on by the church, for seve- 
ral hundred years, against the sciences, and against the profess- 
ors of sciences, if the church had not some record or tradition, 
that it was originally no other than a pious fraud, or did not fore- 
see, that it could not be maintained against the evidence that the 
structure of the universe afforded. 

Having thus shown the irreconcilable inconsistencies between 
the real word of God existing in the universe and that which is 
called the ivord of God. as shewn to us in a printed book that any 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



63 



man might make, I proceed to speak of the three principal means 
that have been employed in all ages, and perhaps in all countries, 
to impose upon mankind. 

Those three means are Mystery, Miracle, and Prophecy. The 
two first are incompatible with true religion, and the third ought 
always to be suspected. 

With respect to mystery every thing we behold is, in one sense, 
a mystery to us. Our own existence is a mystery ; the whole 
vegetable world is a mystery. We cannot account how it is that 
an acorn, when put into the ground, is made to develope itself, 
and become an oak. W e know not how it is that the seed we 
sow unfolds and multiplies itself, and returns to us such an abun- 
dant interest for so small a capital. 

The fact,' however, as distinct from the operating cause, is not 
a mystery, because we see it ; and we know also the means we 
are to use, which is no other than putting seed in the ground. 
We know, therefore, as much as is necessary for us to know; and 
that part of the operation that we do not know, and which if we 
did we could not perform, the Creator takes upon himself and 
performs it for us. We are, therefore, better off than if we had 
been let into the secret, and left to do it for ourselves. 

But though every created thing is, in this sense, a mystery, the 
word mystery cannot be applied to moral truth, any more than ob- 
scurity can be applied to light. The God in whom we believe is a 
God of moral truth, and not a God of mystery or obscurity. Mys- 
tery is the antagonist of truth. It is a fog of human invention, that 
obscures truth, and represents it in distortion. Truth never en- 
velopes itself in mystery ; and the mystery in which it is at any 
time enveloped is the work of its antagonist, and never of itself. 

Religion, therefore, being the belief of a God, and the practice 
of moral truth, cannot have connection with mystery. The belief 
of a God, so far from having any thing of mystery in it, is of all 
beliefs the most easy, because it arises to us, as is before observed, 
out of necessity. And the practice of moral truth, or, in other 
words, a practical imitation of the moral goodness of God, is no 
other than our acting towards each other as he acts benignly to- 
wards all. We cannot serve God in the manner we serve those 
who cannot do without such service ; and therefore the only idea 
we can have of serving God, is that of contributing to the happi- 
ness of the living creation that God has made. This cannot be 
done by retiring ourselves from the society of the world, and spend- 
ing a recluse life in selfish devotion. 

The very nature and design of religion, if I may so express it, 
prove, even to demonstration, that it must be free from every thing 
of mystery, and unincumbered with every thing that is mysterious. 
Religion, considered as a duty, is incumbent upon every living soul 
alike, and, therefore, must be on a level to the understanding and 
comprehension of all. Man does not learn religion as he learns 



64 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



the secrets and mysteries of a trade. He learns the theory of 
religion by reflection. It arises out of the action of his own mind 
upon the things which he sees, or upon what he may happen to 
hear or to read, and the practice joins itself thereto. 

When men, whether from policy, or pious fraud, set up systems 
of religion incompatible with the word or works of God in the cre- 
ation, and not only above, but repugnant to human comprehen- 
sion, they were under the necessity of inventing or adopting a 
word that should serve as a bar to all questions, inquiries, and [ 
speculations. The word mystery answered this purpose ; and thus ^ 
it has happened that religion, which in itself is without mystery, j 
has been corrupted into a fog of mysteries. 

As mystery answered all general purposes, miracle followed as 
an occasional auxiliary. The former served to bewilder the mind ; 
the latter to puzzle the senses. The one was the lingo, the other j 
the ledgerdemain. 

But before going further into this subject, it will be proper to { 
inquire what is to be understood by a miracle. 

In the same sense that every thing may be said to be a mystery, t 
so also may it be said that every thing is a miracle, and that no one r 
thing is a greater miracle than another. The elephant, though lar- t 
ger, is not a greater miracle than a mite: nor a mountain a greater j. 
miracle than an atom. To an Almighty power, it is no more diffi- i 4 
cult to make the one than the other ; and no more difficult to [ 
make a million of worlds than to make one. Every thing, there- \ 
fore, is a miracle in one sense, whilst in the other sense, there is | 
no such thing as a miracle. It is a miracle when compared to our Ij 
power, and to our comprehension ; it is not a miracle compared [j 
to the power that performs it ; but as nothing in this description fa 
conveys the idea that is affixed to the word miracle, it is necessary jr 
to carry the inquiry further. j) 

Mankind have conceived to themselves certain laws, by which 
what they call nature is supposed to act ; and that a miracle is 
something contrary to the operation and effect of those laws ; but jj 
unless we know the whole extent of those laws, and of what are j 
commonly called the powers of nature, we are not able to judge : j 
whether any thing that may appear to us wonderful or miraculous, 
be within, or be beyond, or be contrary to her natural power of 5 
acting. I 

The ascension of a man several miles high into the air, would 
have every thing in it that constitutes the idea of a miracle, if it j 
were not known that a species of air can be generated several times j 
lighter than the common atmospheric air, and yet possess elasticity f 
enough to prevent the balloon, in which that light air is enclosed, f 
from being compressed into as many times less hulk, by the com- iv I 
mon air that surrounds it. In like manner, extracting flames or # 
sparks of fire from the human body, as visible as from a steel struck 13 
with a flint, and causing iron or steel to move without any visible 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



65 



agent, would also give the idea of a miracle, if we were not ac- 
quainted with electricity and magnetism ; so also would many other 
experiments in natural philosophy, to those who are not acquaint- 
ed with the subject. The restoring persons to life, who are to ap- 
pearance dead, as is practised upon drowned persons, would also 
be a miracle, if it were not known that animation is capable of be- 
ing suspended without being extinct. 

Besides these, there are performances by slight of hand, and 
ny persons acting in concert, that have a miraculous appearance, 
which when known, are thought nothing of. And, besides these, 
there are mechanical and optical deceptions. There is now an ex- 
hibition in Paris of ghosts or spectres, which, though it is not im- 
posed upon the spectators, as a fact, has an astonishing appearance. 
As, therefore, we know not the extent to which either nature or 
art can go, there is no criterion to determine what a miracle is ; 
and mankind, in giving credit to appearances, under the idea 
of their being miracles, are subject to be continually imposed 
upon. 

Since then appearances are so capable of deceiving, and things 
not real have a strong resemblance to things that are, nothing can 
be more inconsistent than to suppose that the Almighty would 
make use of means, such as are called miracles, that would sub- 
ject the person who performed them to the suspicion of being an 
impostor, and the person who related them to be suspected of ly- 
ing, and the doctrine intended to be supported thereby to be sus- 
pected as a fabulous invention. 

Of all the modes of evidence that ever were invented to obtain 
belief to any system or opinion to which the name of religion 
has been given, that of miracle, however successful the imposition 
may have been, is the most inconsistent. For, in the first place, 
whenever recourse is had to show, for the purpose of procuring 
that belief, (for a miracle, under any idea of the word, is a show) 
it implies a lameness or weakness in the doctrine that is preach- 
ed. And, in the second place, it is degrading the Almighty Into 
the character of a show-man, playing tricks to amuse and make 
the people stare and wonder. It is also the most equivocal sort of 
evidence that can be set up ; for the belief is not to depend upon 
the thing called a miracle, but upon the credit of the reporter, who 
says that he saw it ; and, therefore, the thing, were it true, would 
have no better chance of being believed than if it were a lie. 

Suppose I were to say, that when I sat down to write this book, 
a hand presented itself in the air, took up the pen and wrote every 
word that is herein written ; would any body believe me ? certain- 
ly they would not. Would they believe me a whit the more if the 
thing had been a fact ; certainly they would not. Since then a 
real miracle, were it to happen, would be subject to the same fate 
as the falsehood, the inconsistency becomes the greater, of sup- 
posing the Almighty would make use of means that would not an- 
6* 



66 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



swer the purpose for which they were intended, even if they . jn 
were real. 

If we are to suppose a miracle to be something so entirely out J $ 
of the course of whart is called nature, that she must go out of that fa 
course to accomplish it, and we see an account given of such mira- , j 
cle by the person who said he saw it, it raises a question in the 
mind very easily decided, which is, is it more probable that nature 
should go out of her course, or that a man should tell a lie ? We 
have never seen, in our time, nature go out of her course ; but we 
have good reason to believe that millions of lies have been told in 
the same time ; it is therefore, at least millions to one, that the re- 
porter of a miracle tells a lie. | } le 

The story of the whale swallowing Jonah, though a whale is 
large enough to do it, borders greatly on the marvellous ; but it 
would have approached nearer to the idea of miracle, if Jonah 
had swallowed the whale. In this, which may serve for all cases , 
of miracles, the matter would decide itself, as before stated, name- 
ly, it is more probable that a man should have swallowed a whale j \ 
or told a lie. 

But supposing that Jonah had really swallowed the whale, and \ 
gone with it in his belly to Ninevah, and to convince the people \ , 
that it was true, have cast it up in their sight, of the full length and 
size of a whale, would they not have believed him to have been 
the devil instead of a prophet ? or, if the whale had carried Jonah 
to Ninevah, and cast him up in the same public manner, would 
they not have believed the whale to have been the devil, and 
Jonah one of his imps ? 

The most extraordinary of all the things called miracles, related j 
in the New Testament, is that of the devil flying away with Jesus 
Christ, and carrying him to the top of a high mountain ; and to the 
top of the highest pinnacle of the temple, and showing him and 
promising to him all the kingdoms of the ivorld. How happened it 
that he did not discover America ; or is it only with kingdoms that 
his sooty highness has any interest ? 

I have too much respect for the moral character of Christ, to 
believe that he told this whale of a miracle himself ; neither is it j 
easy to account for what purpose it could have been fabricated, un- 
less it were to impose upon the connoisseurs of miracles, as is 
sometimes practised upon the connoisseurs of Queen Anne's far- 
things, and collectors of relics and antiquities ; or to render the 
belief of miracles, ridiculous, by outdoing miracles, as Don Quix- , 
otte outdid chivalry ; or to embarrass the belief of miracles, by 
making it doubtful by what power, Whether of God or the Devil, 
any thing called a miracle was performed. It requires, however, 
a great deal of faith in the devil to believe this miracle. 

In every point of view in which those things called miracles can 
be placed and considered, the reality of them is improbable, and 
their existence unnecessary. They would not, as before observed, j 



THE AGE OF REASON. 67 

answer any useful purpose, e ven if they were true ; for it is more 
difficult to obtain belief to a miracle, than to a principle evidently 
moral, without any miracle. Moral principle speaks universally for 
itself. Miracle could be but a thing of the moment, and seen but by 
j a few ; after this it requires a transfer of faith from God to man, to 
believe a miracle upon man's report. Instead therefore of admit- 
ting the recitals of miracles as evidence of any system of religion 
being true, they ought to be considered as symptoms of its being 
fabulous. It is necessary to the full and upright character of truth, 
that It rejects the crutch ; and it is consistent with the character 
of fable, to seek the aid that truth rejects. Thus much for mys- 
tery and miracle. 

As mystery and miracle took charge of the past and the present, 
prophecy took charge of the future., and rounded the tenses of 
faith. It was not sufficient to know what had been done, but what 
would be done. The supposed prophet was the supposed histori- 
an of times to come ; and if he happened, in shooting with a long 
bow of a thousand years, to strike within a thousand miles of a 
mark, the ingenuity of posterity could make it point-blank ; and if 
he happened to be directly wrong, it was only to suppose, as in the 
case of Jonah and Ninevah, that God had repented himself and 
changed his mind. What a fool do fabulous systems make of 
man ! 

It has been shown, in a former part of this work, that the ori- 
ginal meaning of the words prophet and prophesying has been chan- 
ged, and that a prophet, in the sense of the word as now used, is a 
creature of modern invention ; and it is owing to this change in the 
meaning of the words, that the flights and metaphors of the Jew- 
ish poets and phrases and expressions now rendered obscure, by 
our not being acquainted with the local circumstances to which 
they applied at the time they were used, have been erected into 
prophecies, and made to bend to explanations, at the will and whim- 
sical conceits of sectaries, expounders and commentators. Every 
thing unintelligible was prophetical, and every thing insignificant 
was typical. A blunder would have served as a prophecy ; and a 
dish-clout for a type. 

If by a prophet we are to suppose a man, to whom the Almighty 
communicated some event that would take place in future, either 
there were such men, or there were not. If there were, it* is con- 
sistent to believe that the event so communicated, would be told 
in terms that could be understood ; and not related in such a loose 
and obscure manner as to be out of the comprehensions of those 
that heard it, and so equivocal as to fit almost any circumstance 
that might happen afterwards. It is conceiving very irreverently 
of the Almighty to suppose he would deal in this jesting manner 
with mankind ; yet all the things called prophecies in the book 
called the Bible, come under this description 

But it is with prophecy as it is with miracle \ it could not an- 



68 



THE AGE OF BEASON. 



swer the purpose even if it were real. Those to whom a prophecy 
should be told, could not tell whether the man prophesied or lied, 
or whether it had been revealed to him, or whether he conceited 
it ; and if the thing that he prophesied, or intended to prophecy, 
should happen, or something like it, among the multitude of things 
that are daily happening, nobody could again know whether he 
foreknew it, or guessed at it, or whether it was accidental. A 
prophet, therefore, is a character useless and unnecessary ; and 
the safe side of the case is, to guard against being imposed upon 
by not giving credit to such relations. 

Upon the whole, mystery, miracle, and prophecy, are appen- 
dages that belong to fabulous and not to true religion. They are 
the means by which so many Lo heres ! and Lo theres ! have been 
spread about the world, and religion been made into a trade. — 
The success of one impostor gave encouragement to another, and 
the quieting salvo of doing some good by keeping up a pious fraud, 
protected them from remorse. 

Having now extended the subject to a greater length than I first 
intended, I shall bring it to a close by abstracting a summary from 
the whole. 

First — That the idea or belief of a word of God, existing in 
print, or in writing, or in speech, is inconsistent in itself for rea- 
sons already assigned. These reasons, among many others, are 
the want of an universal language ; the mutability of language ; 
the errors to which translations are subject ; the possibility of to- 
tally suppressing such a word ; the probability of altering it, or of 
fabricating the whole, and imposing it upon the world. 

Secondly — That the Creation we behold is the real and ever 
existing word of God, in which we cannot be deceived. It pro- 
claims his power, it demonstrates his wisdom, it manifests his 
goodness and beneficence. 

Thirdly — That the moral duty of man consists in imitating the 
moral goodness and beneficence of God manifested in the Creation 
towards all his creatures. That seeing as we daily do the goodness 
of God to all men, it is an example calling upon all men to practise 
the same towards each other ; and consequently that every thing 
of persecution and revenge between man and man, and every 
thing of cruelty to animals, is a violation of moral duty. 

I trouble not myself about the manner of future existence. I 
content myself with believing, even to positive conviction, that 
the power that gave me existence is able to continue it, in any 
form and manner he pleases, either with or without this body ; and 
it appears more probable to me that I shall continue to exist here- 
after, than that I should have had existence, as I now have, be- 
fore that existence began 

It is certain that, in one point, all nations of the earth and all re- 
ligions agree ; all believe in a God ; the things in which they dis- 
agree, are the redundancies annexed to that belief ; and therefore, 



THE AGE OF REASON 69 

if ever an universal religion should prevail, it will not be believing 
any thing new, but in getting rid of redundancies, and believing 
as man believed at first. Adam, if ever there was such a man, 
was created a Deist ; but in the mean time, let every man follow, 
as he has a right to do, the religion and worship he prefers. 



END OF THE FIRST PART 



THE 



AGE OF REASON. 

PART THE SECOND. 



PREFACE. 



I have mentioned i'n the former part of The Jige of Reason, that 
it had long been my intention to publish my thoughts upon reli- 
gion ; but that I had originally reserved it to a later period in life, 
intending it to be the last work I should undertake. The circum- 
stances, however, which existed in France in the latter end of 
the year 1793, determined me to delay it no longer. The just 
and humane principles of the revolution, which philosophy had 
first diffused, had been departed from. The idea, always dan- 
gerous to society as it is derogatory to the Almighty, that priests 
could forgive sins, though it seemed to exist no longer, had blunt- 
ed the feelings of humanity, and callously prepared men for the 
commission of all manner of crimes. The intolerant spirit of 
church persecutions had transferred itself into politics ; the tribu- 
nal, styled revolutionary, supplied the place of an inquisition ; 
and the guillotine and the stake outdid the fire and foggot of the 
church. I saw many of my most intimate friends destroyed ; oth- 
ers daily carried to prison ; and I had reason to believe, and had 
also intimations given me, that the same danger was approaching 
myself. 

Under these disadvantages, I began the former part of the Jlge 
of Reason ; I had, besides, neither Bible nor Testament to refer 
to, though I was writing against both ; nor could I procure any ; 
notwithstanding which, I have produced a work that no Bible 
believer, though writing at his ease, and with a library of church 
books about him, can refute. Towards the latter end of December 
of that year, a motion was made and carried, to exclude foreigners 
from the Convention. There were but two in it, Anacharsis 
Cloots and myself ; and I saw, I was particularly pointed at by 
Bourdon de POise, in his speech on that motion. 

Conceiving, after this, that I had but a few days of liberty, I 
sat down and brought the work to a close as speedily as possible ; 
and I had not finished it more than six hours, in the state it has 
since appeared, before a guard came there about three in the 
morning, with an order signed by the two committees of public 
safety and surety-general, for putting me in arrestation as a for- 
eigner, and conveyed me to the prison of the Luxembourg. I 
contrived, in my way there, to call on Joel Barlow, and I put the 



74 



PREFACE. 



manuscript of the work into his hands, as more safe than in my 
possession in prison ; and not knowing what might be the fate in 
trance, either of the writer or the work, I addressed it to the pro- 
tection of the citizens of the United States. 

It is with justice that I say, that the guard who executed this 
order, and the interpreter of the Committee of General Surety, 
who accompanied them to examine my papers, treated me not only 
with civility but with respect. The keeper of the Luxembourg, | 
Bennoit, a man of a good heart, showed to me every friendship in 
his power, as did also all his family, while he continued in that 
station. He was removed from it, put into airestation, and carried 
before the tribunal upon a malignant accusation, but acquitted. 

After I had been in the Luxembourg about three weeks, the 
Americans, then in Paris, went in a body to the Convention, to 
reclaim me as their countryman and friend ; but were answered by 
the President, Yader, who was also President of the Committee 
of Surety-General, and had signed the order for my arrestation, 
that I was born in England. I heard no more after this, from any 
person out of the walls of the prison, till the fall of Robespierre, 
on the 9th of Thermidor— July 27, 1794. 

About two months before this event, I was seized with a fever, 
that in its progress had every symptom of becoming mortal, and 
from the effects of which I am not recovered. It was then that I 
remembered with renewed satisfaction, and congratulated myself 
most sincerely, on having written the former part of " The Jlge of 
Reason." I had then but little expectation «f surviving, and those 
about me had less. I know, therefore, by experience, the con- 
scientious trial of my own principles. 

I was then with three chamber comrades, Joseph Yanhuele, of 
Bruges, Charles Bastini, and Michael Robyns, of Louvain. The 
unceasing and anxious attention of these three friends to me, by 
night and by day, I remember with gratitude, and mention with, 
pleasure. It happened that a physician (Dr. Graham) and a sur- 
geon (Mr. Bond), part of the suite of General O'Hara, were then 
in the Luxembourg. I ask not myself, whether it be convenient 
to them, as men under the English government, that I express to 
them my thanks ; but I should reproach myself if I did not ; and 
also to the physician of the Luxembourg, Dr. Markoski. 

I have some reason to believe, because I cannot discover any 
other cause, that this illness preserved me in existence. Among 
the papers of Robespierre that were examined and reported upon 
to the Convention, by a Committee of Deputies, is a note in the 
hand-writing of Robespierre, in the following words : — 

" Demander que Thomas Paine To demand that a decree of ac- 

soii decrete d } accusation, pour Pin- emotion be passed against Thorn- 

ieret de VJhnerique aidant que de as Paint, for the interest of Jlmer- 

la France." ica, as weU as of France 



PREFACE. 



15 



From what cause it was that the intention was not put in exe- 
cution, I know not, and cannot inform myself; and therefore I 
ascribe it to impossibility, on account of that illness. 

The Convention, to repair as much as lay in their power the in- 
justice I had sustained, invited me publicly and unanimously to re- 
turn into the Convention, and which I accepted, to show I could 
bear an injury without permitting it to injure my principles, or my 
disposition. It is not because right principles have been violated, 
that they are to be abandoned. 

I have seen, since I have been at liberty, several publications 
written, some in America, and some in England, as answers to the 
former part of " The Age of Reason." If the authors of these 
can amuse themselves by so doing, I shall not interrupt them — 
They may write against the work, and against me, as much as they 
please ; they do me more service than they intend, and I can have 
no objection that they write on. They will find, however, by this 
second part, without its being written as an answer to them, that 
they must return to their work, and spin their cobweb over again. 
The first is brushed^away by accident. - 

They will now find that I have furnished myself with a Bible 
and Testament ; and I can say also, that I have found them to be 
much worse books than I had conceived. If I have erred in any 
thing, in the former part of the Age of Reason, it has been by 
speaking better of some parts of those books than they have de- 
served, 

I observe, that all my opponents resort, more or less, to what 
they call Scripture evidence and Bible authority, to help them 
out. They are so little masters of the subject, as to confound a 
dispute about authenticity with a dispute about doctrines ; I will, 
however, put them right, that if they should be disposed to write 
any more, they may know how to begin. 

THOMAS PAINE. 

October, 1795. 



I 



THE 



AGE OF REASON. 

PART THE SECOND. 



IT has often been said, that any thing may be proved from the 
Bible, but before any thing can be admitted as proved by the Bible, 
the Bible itself must be proved to be true ; for if the Bible be not 
true, or the truth of it be doubtful, it ceases to have authority, and 
cannot be admitted as proof of any thing. 

It has been the practice of all Christian commentators on the Bi- 
ble, and of all Christian priests and preachers, to impose the Bible 
on the world as a mass of truth, and as the word of God ; they have 
disputed and wrangled, and have anathematized each other about 
the supposable meaning of particular parts and passages therein ; 
one has said and insisted that such a passage meant such a thing ; 
another that it meant "directly the contrary ; and a third, that it 
meant neither one nor the other, but something different from both; 
and this they call understanding the Bible. 

It has happened, that all the answers which I have seen to the 
former part of the Age of Reason have been written by priests ; 
and these pious men, like their predecessors, contend and wrangle, 
and pretend to understand the Bible ; each understands it different- 
ly, but each understands it best ; and they have agreed in nothing, 
but in telling their readers that Thomas Paine understands it not. 

Now instead of wasting their time, and heating themselves in 
fractious disputations about doctrinal points drawn from the Bible, 
these men ought to know, and if they do not, it is civility to inform 
them, that the first thing to be understood is, whether there is suf- 
ficient authority for believing the Bible to be the word of God, or 
whether there is not. 

There are matters in that book, said to be done by the express 
command of God, that are as shocking ,to humanity, and to every 
idea we have of moral justice, as any thing done by Robespierre, 
by Carrier, by Joseph le Bon, in France, by the English govern- 
ment in the East-Indies, or by any other assassin in modern times. 
When we read in the books ascribed to Moses, Joshua, &c. that 
they (the Israelites) came by stealth upon whole nations of people, 
who, as the history itself shows, had given them no offence ; that 
7* 



^8 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



they put all those nations to the sword ; that they spared neither age nor 
infancy ; that they utterly destroyed men, women and child7*en ; that 
they lejt not a soul to breathe ; expressions that are repeated over 
and over again in those books, and that too with exulting ferocity ; 
are we sure these things are facts ? Are we sure that the Creator 
of man commissioned these things to be done ? Are we sure that 
the books that tell us so were written by his authority ? 

It is not the antiquity of a tale that is any e vidence of its truth ; 
on the contrary, it is a symptom of its being fabulous ; for the more 
ancient any history pretends to be, the more it has the resemblance 
of a fable. The origin of every nation is buried in fabulous tra- 
dition, and that of the Jews is as much to be suspected as any oth- 
er. To charge the commission of acts upon the Almighty, which 
in their own nature, and by every rule of moral justice, are crimes, 
as all assassination is, and more especially the assassination of in- 
fants, is matter of serious concern. The Bible tells us, that those 
assassinations were done by the express command of God. To be- 
lieve, therefore, the Bible to be true, we must unbelieve all our be- 
lief in the moral justice of God ; for wherein could crying or smil- 
ing infants offend ? And to read the Bible without horror, we must 
undo every thing that is tender, sympathising, and benevolent in 
the heart of man. Speaking for myself, if I had no other evidence 
that the Bible is fabulous, than the sacrifice I must make to be- 
lieve it to be true, that alone would be sufficient to determine my 
choice. But, in addition to all the moral evidence against the Bi- 
ble, I will, -in the progress of this work, produce such other evi- 
dence, as even a priest cannot deny ; and shew, from that evidence, 
that the B*ikle is not entitled to credit, as being the word of God 

But, before I proceed to this examination, I will show wherein 
the Bible differs from all other ancient writings with respect to the 
nature of the evidence necessary to establish its authenticity ; and 
this is the more proper to be done, because the advocates of the 
Bible, in their answers to the former part of the Age of Reason-, 
undertake to say, and they put some stress thereon, that the au 
thenticity of the Bible is as well established as that of any other 
ancient book ; as if our belief of the one could become any rule 
for our belief of the other. 

I know, however, but of one ancient book that authoritatively 
challenges universal consent and belief, and that is Euclid 1 s jE/e- 
menis of Geometry and the reason is, because it is a book of self- 
evident demonstration, entirely independent of its author, and of 
every thing relating to time, place and circumstance. The mat- 
ters contained in that book would have the same authority they 
now have, had they been written by any other person, or had the 
work been anonymous, or had the author never been known ; for 
the identical certainty of who was the author, makes no part of our 

* Euclid, according to chronological history, lived three hundred years before Christ, 
and about one hundred before Archimedes ; lie was of the city of Alexandria, in Egypt. 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



79 



belief of the matters contained in the book. But it is quite other- 
wise with respect to the books ascribed to Moses, to Joshua, to 
Samuel, &c. those are books of testimony, and they testify of 
things naturally incredible ; and therefore the whole of our be- 
lief, as to the authenticity of those books, rests, in the first place, 
upon the certainty that they were written by Moses, Joshua, and 
Samuel ; secondly, upon the credit we give to their testimony. 
We may believe the first, that is, we may believe the certainty 
of the authorship, and yet not the testimony ; in the same man- 
ner that we may believe that a certain person gave evidence 
upon a case, and yet not believe the evidence that he gave. 
But if it should be found, that the books ascribed to Moses, Josh- 
ua, and Samuel, were not written by Moses, Joshua, and Sam- 
uel, every part of the authority and authenticity of those books 
is gone at once; for there can be no such thing as forged 
or invented testimony ; neither can there be anonymous tes- 
timony, more especially as to things naturally incredible ; 
such as that of talking with God face to face, or that of the sun 
and moon standing still at the command of a man. The greatest 
part of the other ancient books are works of genius ; of which 
kind are those ascribed to Homer, to Plato, to Aristotle, to De- 
mosthenes, to Cicero, &c. Here again the author is not an es- 
sential in the credit we give to any of those works ; for, as works 
of genius, they would have the same merit they have now, were 
they anonymous. Nobody believes the Trojan story, as related 
by Homer, to be true — for it is the poet only that is admired ; 
and the merit of the poet will remain, though the story be fabu- 
lous. But if we disbelieve the matters related by the Bible au- 
thors, (Moses for instance) as we disbelieve the things related 
by Homer, there remains nothing of Moses in our estimation, 
but an impostor. As to the ancient historians from Herodotus 
to Tacitus, we credit them as far as they relate things probable 
and credible, and no further ; for if we do, we must believe the 
two miracles which Tacitus relates were performed by Yespa- 
sian, that of curing a lame man, and a blind man, in just the 
same manner as the same things are told of Jesus Christ by his 
historians. We must also believe the miracle cited by Josephus, 
that of the sea of Paraphilia opening to let Alexander and his 
army pass, as is related of the Bed Sea in Exodus. These mir- 
acles are quite as well authenticated as the Bible miracles, and 
yet we do not believe them ; consequently the degree of evi- 
dence necessary to establish our belief of things naturally in- 
credible, whether in the Bible or elsewhere, is far greater than 
that which obtains our belief to natural and probable things ; 
and therefore the advocates for the Bible have no claim to our 
belief of the Bible, because that we believe things stated in oth- 
er ancient writings ; since we believe the things stated in these 
writings no further than they are probable and credible, or be- 



80 



THE AGE OF REASOX. 



cause they are self-evident, like Euclid ; or admire them be- 
cause they are elegant, like Homer ; or approve them because 
they are sedate, like Plato ; or judicious, like Aristotle. 

Having premised these things, I proceed to examine the au- 
thenticity of the Bible, and I begin with what are called the five 
books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus y Leviticus, Numbers, and Deu- 
teronomy. My intention is to show that those books are spuri- 
ous, and that Moses is not the author of them ; and still further, 
that they were not written in the time of Moses, nor till several 
hundred years afterwards ; that they are no other than an at* 
tempted history of the life of Moses, and of the times in which he 
is said to have lived, and also of the times prior thereto, written 
by some very ignorant and stupid pretenders to authorship, sev- 
eral hundred years after the death of Moses, as men now write 
histories of things that happened, or are supposed to have hap- 
pened, several hundred or several thousand years ago. 

The evidence that I shall produce in this case is from the 
books themselves ! and I will confine myself to this evidence 
only.— Were I to refer for proof to any of the ancient authors^ 
whom the advocates of "the Bible call profane authors, they 
would controvert that authority, as I controvert theirs ; I will 
therefore meet them on their own ground, and oppose them with 
their own weapon, the Bible. 

In the first place, there is no affirmative evidence that Moses 
is the author of those books ; and that he is the author, is alto- 
gether an unfounded opinion, g6t abroad nobody knows how. 
The style and manner in which those books are written, give no 
room to believe, or even to suppose, they were written by Moses , 
for it is altogether the style and manner of another person speak-* 
ing of Moses. In Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, (for every 
thing in Genesis is prior to the time of Moses, and not the least 
allusion is made to him therein) the whole, I say, of these books 
is in the third person ; it is always, the Lord said unto Moses, or 
Moses said unto the Lord ; or Moses said unto the people, or the 
peopte said unto Moses ; and this is the style and manner that his- 
torians use, in speaking of the person whose lives and actions 
they are writing. It may be said that a man may speak of him- 
self in the third person ; and therefore it may be supposed that 
Moses did ; but supposition proves nothing ; and if the advocates 
for the belief that Moses wrote those books himself, have nothing 
better to advance than supposition, they may as well be silent. 

But granting the grammatical right, that Moses might speak of 
himself in the third person, because any man might speak of him- 
self in that manner, it cannot be admitted as a fact in those books, 
that it is Moses who speaks, without rendering Moses truly ridicu- 
lous and absurd: — for example, Numb. chap. xii. ver. 3. " Now the 
man Moses urns very meek, above all the men which were on the face 
of the earthy If Moses said this of himself, instead of being the 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



8! 



meekest of men, he was one of the most vain and arrogant of 
coxcombs ; and the advocates for those books may now take 
which side they please, for both sides are against them ; if Moses 
was not the author, the books are without authority ; and if he 
was the author, the author was without credit, because to boast 
of meekness, is the reverse of meekness, and is a lie in sentiment. 

In Deuteronomy, the style and manner of writing marks more 
evidently than in the former books, that Moses is not the writer. 
The manner here used is dramatical ; the writer opens the sub- 
ject by a short introductory discourse, and then introduces Mo- 
ses in the act of speaking, and when he has made Moses finish 
his harangue, he (the writer) resumes his own part, and speaks 
till he brings Moses forward again, and at last closes the scene 
with an account of the death, funeral, and character of Moses. 

This interchange of speakers occur four times in this book ; 
from the first verse of the first chapter, to the end of the fifth 
verse, it is the writer who. speaks ; he then introduces Moses as 
in the act of making his harangue, and this continues to the end 
of the 40th verse of the fourth chapter ; here the writer drops 
Moses, and speaks historically of what was done in consequence 
of what Moses, when living, is supposed to have said, and which 
the writer has dramatically rehearsed. 

The writer opens the subject again in the first verse of the fifth 
chapter, though it is only by saying, that Moses called the peo- 
ple of Israel together ; he then introduces Moses as before, and 
continues him, as in the act of speaking, to the end of the 26th 
chapter. He does the same thing at the beginning of the 27th 
chapter ; and continues Moses, as in the act of speaking, to the 
end of the 28th chapter. At the 29th chapter the writer speaks 
again through the whole of the first verse, and the first line of the „ 
second verse, where he introduces Moses for the last time, and 
continues him, as in the act of speaking, to the end of the 33d 
chapter. 

The writer having now finished the rehearsal on the part of 
Moses, comes forward, and speaks through the whole of the last 
chapter ; he begins by telling the reader, that Moses went up to 
the top of Pisgah ; that he saw from thence the land which (the 
writer says) had been promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob ; 
that he, Moses, died there, in the land of Moab, but that no 
man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day, that is, unto the 
time in which the writer lived, who wrote the book of Deuterono- 
my. The writer then tells us, that Moses was 110 years of age 
when he died — that his eye was not dim, nor his natural force 
abated ; and he concludes by saying, that there arose not a pro- 
phet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom, says this anonymous 
writer, the Lord knew face to face. 

Having thus shown, as far as grammatical evidence applies, 
that Mosos was not the writer of those books, I will, after mak- 



32 



THE AGE OF REASON; 



ing a few observations on the inconsistencies of the writer of the ! 
book of Deuteronomy, proceed to show, from the historical and 
chronological evidence contained in those books, that Moses teas 
not, because he could not be, the writer of them ; and consequent- 
ly, that there is no authority for believing, that the inhuman and 
liorrid butcheries of men, women, and children, told in those books, 
were done, as those books say they were, at the command of 
God. It is a duty incumbent on every true Deist, that he vindi- 
cate the moral justice of God against the calumnies of the Bible. 

The writer of the book of Deuteronomy, whoever he was, (for 
it is an anonymous work) is obscure, and also in contradiction with 
Jiimself, in the account he has given of Moses. 

After telling that Moses went to the top of Pisgah (and it does 
not appear from any account that he ever came down again) he 
tells us, that Moses died there in the land of Moab, and that he 
buried him in a valley in the land of Moab ; but as there is no an- 
tecedent to the pronoun he, there is no knowing who he was that 
did bury him. If the writer meant that he (God) buried him, how 
should he (the writer) know it ? or why should we (the readers) 
believe him ? since we know not who the writer was that tells 
us so, for certainly Moses could not himself tell where he was 
buried. 

The writer also tells us, that no man knoweth where the sepul- 
chre of Moses is unto this clay, meaning the time in which this wri- 
ter lived ; how then should he know that Moses was buried in a 
valley in the land of Moab ? for as the writer lived long after the 
time of Moses, as is evident from his using the expression of unto 
this day, meaning a great length of time after the death of Moses, 
he certainly was not at his funeral ; and on the other hand, it is 
impossible that Moses himself could say, that no man knoweth ichere 
the sepulchre is unto this day. To make Moses the speaker, would 
be an improvement on the play of a child that hides himself, and 
cries nobody can find me ; nobody can find Moses. 

This writer has no where told us how he came by the speeches 
which he has put into the mouth of Moses to speak, and therefore 
we have a right to conclude, that he either composed them him- 
self, or wrote them from oral tradition. One or other of these is 
the more probable, since he has given, in the fifth chapter, a ta- 
ble of commandments, in which that called the fourth command- 
ment is different from the fourth commandment in the twentieth 
chapter of Exodus. In that of Exodus, the reason given for keep- 
ing the seventh day is, "because (says the commandment) God 
made the heavens and the earth in six days, and rested on the 
seventh ;t but in that of Deuteronomy, the reason given is, that 
it was the day on which the children of Israel came out of Egypt, 
and therefore, says this commandment, the Lord thy God command- 
ed thee to keep the sabbath-day. This makes no mention of the cre- 
ation, nor that of the coming out of Egypt. There are also many 



THE AGE OF REASON. 83 

things given as laws of Moses in this book, that are not to be 
found in any of the other books ; among which is that inhuman 
and brutal law, chap. xxi. ver. 18, 19, 20, 21, which authorizes 
parents, the father and the mother, to bring their own children 
to have them stoned to death, for what it is pleased to call stub- 
bornness. But priests have always been fond of preaching up 
Deuteronomy, for Deuteronomy preaches up tythes ; and it is 
from this book, chap. xxv. ver. 4, they have taken the phrase, and 
applied it to tything, that thou shall not muzzle the ox when he bead- 
eth out the corn ; and that this might not escape observation, they 
have noted it in the table of contents at the head of the chapter, 
though it is only a single verse of less than two lines. O priests ! 
priests ! ye are willing to be compared to an ox, for the sake of 
tythes. Though it is impossible for us to know identically who 
the writer of Deuteronomy was, it is not difficult to discover him 
professionally j that he was some Jewish priest, who lived, as I 
shall show in the course of this work, at least three hundred and 
fifty years after the time of Moses. 

I come now to speak of the historical and chronological evi- 
dence. The chronology that I shall use is the Bible chronology ; 
for I mean not to go out of the Bible for evidence of any thing, 
but to make the Bible itself prove historically and chronologically, 
that Moses is not the author of the books ascribed to him. It is 
therefore proper that I inform the reader, (such an one at least 
as may not have an opportunity of knowing it,) that in the larger 
Bibles, and also in some smaller ones, there is a series of chro- 
nology printed in the margin of every page, for the purpose of 
showing how long the historical matters stated in each page hap- 
pened, or are supposed to have happened, before Christ, and con- 
sequently the distance of time between one historical circumstance 
and another. 

I begin with the book of Genesis. In the 14th chapter of Gen- 
esis, the writer gives an account of Lot being taken prisoner in a 
battle between the four kings against five, and carried off ; and 
that when the account of Lot being taken, came to Abraham, he 
armed all his household, and marched to rescue Lot from the cap- 
tors ; and that he pursued them unto Dan, (ver. 14.) 

To show in what manner this expression of pursuing them unto 
Dan applies to the case in question, I will refer to two circum- 
stances, the one in America, the other in France. The city now 
called New-York, in America, was originally New Amsterdam ; 
and the town in France, lately called Havre Marat, was before 
called Havre de Grace, New Amsterdam was changed to New- 
York in the year 1664 ; Havre de Grace to Havre Marat in the 
year 1793. Should, therefore, any writing be found, though with- 
out date, in which the name of New- York should be mentioned, 
it would be certain evidence that such writing could not have been 
written before, and must have been written after New Amsterdam 



84 THE AGE OF REASON. 

was changed to New-York, and consequently not till after the 
year 1664, or at least during the course of that year. And, in 
like manner, any dateless writing, with the name of Havre Marat, 
would be certain evidence that such a writing must have been 
written after Havre de Grace became Havre Marat, and conse- 
quently not till after the year 1793, or at least during the course 
of that year. 

I now come to the application of those cases, and to show that 
there was no such place as Dan, till many years after the death of 
Moses ; and consequently that Moses could not be the writer of 
the book of Genesis, where this account of pursuing them unto 
Dan is given. 

The place that is called Dan in the Bible was originally a town 
of the Gentiles, called Laish ; and when the tribe of Dan seized 
upon this town, they changed its name to Dan, in commemoration 
of Dan, who was the father of that tribe, and the great grandson of 
Abraham. 

To establish this in proof, it is necessary to refer from Genesis 
to the 18th chapter of the book called the book of Judges. It is 
there said (ver. 27) that they (the Danites) come unto Laish to a 
people that were quiet and secure, and they smote them ivith the edge of 
the sword (the Bible is filled with murder) and burned the city with 
fire ; and they built a cily, (ver. 28) and dwelt therein, and they 
called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan, their father, 
howbeit the name of the city was Laish at the first. 

This account of the Danites taking possession of Laish and 
changing it to Dan, is placed in the book of Judges immediately | 
after the death of Sampson. The death of Sampson is said to 
have happened 1120 years before Christ, and that of Moses 1451 
before Christ ; and therefore, according to the historical arrange- 
ment, the place was not called Dan till 331 years after the death 
of Moses. 

There is a striking confusion between the historical and the 
chronological arrangement in the Book of Judges. The five last 
chapters, as they stand in the book, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, are put 
chronologically before all the preceding chapters' ; they are made 
to be 28 years before the 16th chapter, 266 before the 15th, 245 
before the 13th, 195 before the 9th, 90 before the 4th, and 15 years 
before the 1st chapter. This shows the uncertain and fabulous 
state of the Bible. According to the chronological arrangement, 
the taking of Laish, and giving it the name of Dan, is made to be 
20 years after the death of Joshua, who was the successor of Mo- 
ses ; and by the historical order as it stands in the book, it is made 
to be 306 years after the death of Joshua, and 331 after that of 
Moses ; but they both exclude Moses from being the writer of 
Genesis, because, according to either of the statements, no such 
place as Dan existed in the time of Moses ; and therefore the writ- 
er of Genesis must have been some person who lived after the 



THE AGE OF REASON 



85 



town of Laish had the name of Dan ; and who that person was, 
nobody knows ; and consequently the book of Genesis is anony- 
mous and without authority. 

I proceed now to state another point of historical and chrono- 
logical evidence, and to show therefrom, as in the preceding case, 
that Moses is not the author of the book of Genesis. 

In the 36th chapter of Genesis there is given a genealogy of 
the sons and descendants of -Esau, who are called Edomites, and 
also a list by name, of the kings of Edom ; in enumerating of 
which, it is said, ver. 31, cc Jlnd these are the kings that reigned in 
Edom 7 before there reigned any king over the children of Israel." 

Now, were any dateless writings to be found, in which, speak- 
ing of any past events, the writer should say, these things happen- 
ed before there was any Congress in America, or before there 
was any Convention in France, it would be evidence that such 
writing could not have been written before, and could only be 
written after there was a Congress in America, or a Convention in 
France, as the ease might be ; and consequently that it could not 
be written by any person who died before there was a Congress 
in the one country, or a Convention in the other. 

Nothing is more frequent as well in history as in conversation 
than to refer to a fact in the room of a date : it is most natural so 
to do, because a fact fixes itself in the memory better than a date ; 
secondly, because the fact includes the date, and serves to excite 
two ideas at once ; and this manner of speaking by circumstances 
implies as positively that the fact alluded to is past, as if it was so 
expressed. When a person, speaking upon any matter, says, it 
was before I was married, or before my son was born, or before 
I went to America, or before I went to France, it is absolutely un- 
derstood, and intended to be understood, that he has been marri- 
ed, that he has had a son, that he has been in America, or been 
in France. Language does not admit of using this mode of ex- 
pression in any other sense ; and whenever such an expression is 
found any where, it can only be understood in the sense in which 
only it could have been used. 

The passage, therefore, that I have quoted — "that these are the 
kings that reigned in Edom, before there reigned any king over the 
children of Israel," could only have been written after the first 
king began to reign over them ; and consequently that the book of 
Genesis, so far from having been written by Moses, could not have 
been written till the time of Saul at least. This is the positive 
sense of the passage ; but the expression, any king, implies more 
kings than one, at least it implies two, and this will carry it to the 
time of David ; and, if taken in a general sense, it carries itself 
through all the times of the Jewish monarchy. 

Had we met with this verse in any part of the bible that profess- 
ed to have been written after kings began to reign in Israel, it 
would have been impossible not to have seen the application otic 



B6 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



It happens then that this is the case ; the two booits of Chronicles, 
which gave a history of all the kings of Israel, are professedly, as 
well as in fact, written after the Jewish monarchy began ; and this 
yerse that I have quoted, and all the remaining verses of the 36th 
chapter of Genesis, are, word for word, in the first chapter of 
Chronicles, beginning at the 43d verse. 

It was with consistency that the writer of the Chronicles could 
say, as he has said, 1st Chron. chap. i. ver. 43, These are the kings 
that reigned in Edom, before th ere reigned any king over the children 
of Israel, because he was going to give, and has given, a list of the 
kings that had reigned in Israel ; but as it is impossible that the 
same expression could have been used before that period, it is as 
certain as any thing can be proved from historical language, that 
this part of Genesis is taken from Chronicles, and that Genesis 
is not so old as Chronicles, and probably not so old as the book 
of Homer, or as sop's Fables, admitting Homer to have been, 
as the tables of Chronology state, contemporary with David or 
Solomon, and iEsop to have lived about the end of the Jewish 
monarchy. 

Take away from Genesis the belief that Moses was the author, 
on which only the strange belief that it is the word of God has 
stood, and there remains nothing of Genesis but an anonymous 
book of stones, fables, and traditionary or invented absurdities, or 
of downright lies. The story of Eve and the serpent, and of 
Noah and his ark, drops to a level with the Arabian Tales, with- 
out the merit of being entertaining ; and the account of men living 
to eight and nine hundred years becomes as fabulous as the im- 
mortality of the giants of the Mythology. 

Besides, the character of Moses, as stated in the Bible, is the 
most horrid that can be imagined. If those accounts be true, he 
was the wretch that first began and carried on wars on the score, 
or on the pretence of religion ; and under that mask, or that infatu- 
ation, committed the most unexampled atrocities that are to be 
found in the history of any nation, of which I will state only one 
instance. 

When the Jewish army returned from one of their plundering 
and murdering excursions, the account goes on as follows, Num- 
bers, chap. xxxi. ver. 13. 

"And Moses, and Eleazer the priest, and all the princes of the 
congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp ; and 
Moses was wrath with the officers of the host, with the captains 
over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the 
battle ; and Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women 
alive! behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the 
council of Balaam, to commit trespass against the Lord in the 
matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation 
of the Lord. Now, therefore, hill every male among the little ones, 
and Mil every ivoman that hath known a man by lying with him ; bid 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



87 



nil the women children that have not known a man by lying with him, 
keep alive for xjourselves. 

Among the detestable villains that in any period of the world 
have disgraced the name of man, it is impossible to find a greater 
than Moses, if this account be true. Here is an order to butcher 
the boys, to massacre the mothers, and debauch the daughters. 

Let any mother put herself in the situation of those mothers ; 
one child murdered, another destined to violation, and herself in 
the hands of an executioner : let any daughter put herself in the 
situation of those daughters, destined as a prey to the murderers 
of a mother and a brother, and what will be their feelings ? It is 
in vain that we 'attempt to impose upon nature, for nature will have 
her course, and the religion that tortures all her social ties is a 
false religion. 

After this detestable order, follows an account of the plunder 
taken, and the manner of dividing it ; and here it is that the pro- 
faneness of priestly hypocrisy increases the catalogue of crimes. 
Yerse 37, "And the Lord's tribute of the sheep was six hundred 
and three score and fifteen ; and the beeves was thirty and six 
thousand, of which the Lord's tribute was three score and twelve ; 
and the asses were thirty thousand, of which the Lord's tribute 
was three score and one ; and the persons were thirty thousand, 
of which the Lord's tribute was thirty and two." In short, the mat- 
ters contained in this chapter, as well as in many other parts of 
the Bible, are too horrid for humanity to read, or for decency to 
hear ; for it appears, from the 35th verse of this chapter, that the 
number of women-children consigned to debauchery by the order 
of Moses was thirty-two thousand. 

People in general know not what wickedness there is in this 
pretended word of God. Brought up in habits of superstition, 
they take it for granted that the Bible is true, and that it is good ; 
they permit themselves not to doubt of it, and they carry the ideas 
they form of the benevolence of the Almighty to the book which 
they have been taught to believe was written by his authority. 
Good heavens ! it is quite another thing ; it is a book of lies, wick- 
edness, and blasphemy ; for what can be greater blasphemy, than 
to ascribe the wickedness of man to the orders of the Almighty ? 

But to return to my subject, that of showing that Moses is not 
the author of the books ascribed to him, and that the Bible is spu- 
rious. The two instances I have already given would be suffi- 
cient, without any additional evidence, to invalidate the authentici- 
ty of any book that pretended to be four or five hundred years more 
ancient than the matters it speaks of or refers to as facts ; for in 
the case of pursuing them unto Dan, and of the kings that reigned 
over the children of Israel, not even the flimsey pretence of prophe- 
sy can be pleaded. The expressions are in the preter tense, and 
it would be downright ideotism to say that a man could prophesy 
in the preter tense. 



83 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



But there are many other passages scattered throughout those 
books that unite in the same point of evidence. It is said in Exo- 
dus, (another of the books ascribed to Moses) chap. xvi. ver. 34, 
"And the children of Israel did eat manna until they came to a land 
inhabited ; they did eat manna until they came unto the borders of the 
land of Canaan. 

Whether the children of Israel ate manna or not, or what man- 
na was, or whether it was any thing more than a kind of fungus 
or small mushroom, or other vegetable substance common to that 
part of the country? makes nothing to my argument ; all that I 
mean to show is, that it is not Moses that could write this account, 
because the account extends itself beyond the life and time of 
Moses. Moses, according to the Bible, (but it is such a book of 
lies and contradictions there is no knowing which part to believe, 
or whether any) dies in the wilderness, and never came upon the 
borders of the land of Canaan ; and consequently it could not be 
he that said what the children of Israel did, or what they ate when 
they came there. This account of eating manna, which they tell 
us was written by Moses, extends itself to the time of Joshua, the 
successor of Moses, as appears by the account given in the book 
of Joshua, after the children of Israel had passed the river Jor- 
dan, and came unto the borders of the land of Canaan. Joshua, 
chap. v. ver. 12. u Jlnd the manna ceased on the mori % ow, after they 
had eaten of the old corn of the land ; neither h ad the children of Is- 
rael manna any more, but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Cana- 
an that year " 

But a more remarkable instance than this occurs in Deuterono- 
my ; which, while it shows that Moses could not be the writer of 
that book, shows also the fabulous notions that prevailed at that 
time about giants. In the third chapter of Deuteronomy, among 
the conquests said to be made by Moses, is an account of the tak- 
ing of Og, king of Bashan, ver. 11. "For only Og, king of Ba- 
shan, remained of the race of giants ; behold, his bedstead was a 
bedstead of iron ; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Amnion? 
nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits' the breadth of 
it, after the cubit of a man." A cubit is 1 foot 9 888-lOOOths 
inches ; the length, therefore, of the bed was 16 feet 4 inches, and 
the breadth 7 feet 4 inches ; thus much for this giant's bed. Now 
for the historical part, which though the evidence is not so direct 
and positive, as in the former cases, it is nevertheless very pre- 
sumable and corroborating evidence, and is better than the best ev- 
idence on the contrary side. 

The writer, by way of proving the existence of this giant, refers 
to his bed, as an ancient relic, and says, is it not in Rabbath (or 
Rabbah) of the children of Ammon ? meaning that it is ; for such 
is frequently the Bible method of affirming a thing. But it could 
not be Moses that said this, because Moses could know nothing 
about Rabbah, nor of what was va it. Rabbah was not a city be- 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



89 



longing to this giant king, nor was it one of the cities that Moses 
took. The knowledge, therefore, that this bed was at Kabbah, 
and of the particulars of its dimensions, must be referred to the 
time when Rabbah was taken, and this was not till four hundred 
years after the death of Moses ; for which, see 2 Sam. chap. xji. 
ver. 26. "And Joab (David's general) fought against Rabbah of 
the children of J2mmon y and took the royal city." 

As I am not undertaking to point out all the contradictions in 
time, place and circumstance, that abound in the books ascribed to 
Moses, and which prove to a demonstration that those books could 
not be written by Moses, nor in the time of Moses ; I proceed to 
the book of Joshua, and to show that Joshua is n r t the author of 
that book, and that it is anonymous and without authority. The 
evidence I shall produce is contained in the book itself ; I will not 
go out of the Bible for proof against the supposed authenticity of 
the Bible. False testimony is always good against itself. 

Joshua, according to the first chapter of Joshua, was the imme- 
diate successor of Moses \ he was moreover a military man, which 
Moses was not, and he continued as chief of the people of Israel 
25 years ; that is, from the time that Moses died, which, accord- 
ing to the Bible chronology, was 1451 years before Christ, until 
1426 years before Christ, when, according to the same chronology, 
Joshua died. If, therefore, we find in this book, said to have been 
written by Joshua, reference to facts done after the death of Josh- 
ua, it is evidence that Joshua could not be the author ; and also 
that the book could not have been written till after the time of the 
latest fact which it records. As to the character of the book, it 
is horrid ; it is a military history of rapine and murder, as savage 
and brutal as those recorded of his predecessor in villany and hy- 
pocrisy, Moses ; and the blasphemy consists, as m the former 
books, in ascribing those* deeds to the orders of the Almighty. 

In the first place, the book of Joshua, as is the case in the pre- 
ceding books, is written in the third person ; it is the historian of 
Joshua that speaks, for it would have been absurd and vain-glori- 
ous that Joshua should say bf himself, as is said of him in the last 
verse of the sixth chapter, that " his fame ivas noiseoV throughout 
all the country" I now come more immediately to- the proof. 

In the 24th chapter, ver. 31, it is said, " that Israel served the 
Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the .elders that over- 
lived Joshua." Now, in the name of common sense, can it be 
Joshua that relates what people had done after he was dead? This 
account must not only have been written by some historian that 
lived after Joshua, but that lived also after the elders that out- 
lived Joshua. 

There are several passages of a general meaning with respect 
to time, scattered throughout the book of Joshua, that carries the 
time in which the book was written to a distance from the time of 
Joshua, but without marking bv exclusion any particular time, as 



90 THE AGE OF KEASON. 

in the passage above quoted. In that passage, the time that in- 1 
tervened between the death of Joshua and the death of the elders , 
is excluded descriptively and absolutely, and the evidence sub- js 
stantiates that the book could not have been written till after the I 
death of the last. 

But though the passages to which I allude, and which I am go- 
ing to quote, do not designate any particular time by exclusion, ( 
they imply a time far more distant from the days of Joshua, than is [ 
contained between the death of Joshua and the death of the elders, jj 
Such is the passage, chap. x. ver. 14 ; where, after giving an ac-j| 
count that the sun stood still upon Gibeon, and the moon in the j 
valley of Ajalon, at the command of Joshua (a tale only fit to a-|r 
muse children) the passage says, "And there was no day like that, 
before it, nor after it, that the Lord harkened to the voice of a man." [j 

This tale of the sun standing still upon Mount Gibeon, and the - 
moon in the yalley of Ajalon, is one of those fables that detects itself. | 
Such a circumstance could not have happened without being known 1 
all over the world. One half would have wondered why the sun r 
did not rise, and the other why it did not set ; and the tradition of 4 
it would be universal, whereas there is not a nation in the world 
that knows any thing about it. But why must the moon stand *, 1 
still ? What occasion could there be for moon-light in the day-time, 
and that too while the sun shined ? As a poetical figure, the whole L 
is well enough ; it is a kin to that in the song of Deborah and Ba- 
ruk, The stars in their courses fought against Sisera ; but it is in- t 
ferior to the figurative declaration of Mahomet, to the persons who 
came to expostulate with him on his going on. Wert tJwu, said he, t 
to come to me tvith the sun in thy right hand and the moon in thy lejt, \ { 
it should not alter my career. For Joshua to have exceeded Ma- 
homet, he should have put the sun and moon one in each pocket, || 
and carried them as Guy Faux carried his dark lanthorn, and tak- p 
en them out to shine as he might happen to want them. L 

The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related that 
. it is difficult to class them separately. One step above the sub- { 
lime makes the ridiculous, and one step above the ridiculous makes [j 
the sublime again : the account, however, abstracted from the ,; n 
poetical fancy, shows the ignorance of Joshua, for he should have |< g. 
commanded the earth to have stood still. \ L 

The time implied by the expression after it, that is, after that j ■/ 
day, being put in comparison with all the time that passed before !) (j 
it, must, in order to give any expressive signification to the pas- ^ 
sage, mean a great length of time : — for example, it would have ; v 
been ridiculous to have said so the next day, or the next week, of v n 
the next month, or the next year ; to give, therefore, meaning to \ ( ^ 
the passage, comparative with the wonder it relates, and the prior 
time it alludes to, it must mean centuries of years ; less, however, ; ^ 
than one would be trifling, and less than two would be barely ad- t ^ 
missible. i 



THE AGE OP REASON. 



91 



A distant, but general time, is also expressed in the 8th chap- 
ter ; where, after giving an account of the taking of the city of 
Ai, it is said, ver. 28th, " And Joshua burned Ai, and made it an 
heap for ever, a desolation unto this day and again, ver. 29th, 
where, speaking of the king of Ai, whom Joshua had hanged, and 
buried at the entering of the gate, it is said, " And he raised there- 
on a great heap of stones, which remaineth unto this day," that 
is, unto the day or time in which the writer of the book of Joshua 
lived. And again, in the 10th chapter, where, after speaking of 
the five kings whom J@shua had hanged on five trees,., and then 
thrown in a cave, it is said, "And he laid great stones on the cave's 
mouth, which remain unto this very day." 

In enumerating the several exploits of Joshua, and of the tribes, 
and of the places which they conquered or attempted, it is said, c 
xv. ver. 63, " As for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 
the children of Judah could not drive them out ; but the Jebusites 
dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day." The 
question upon this passage is, at what time did the Jebusites and 
the children of Judah dwell together at Jerusalem ? As this matter 
occurs again in the -first chapter of Judges, I shall reserve my ob- 
servations till I come to that part. 

Having thus shown from the book of Joshua itself, without any 
auxiliary evidence whatever, that Joshua is not the author of that 
book, and that it is anonymous, and consequently without author- 
ity. I proceed, as before mentioned, to the book of Judges. 

The book of Judges is anonymous on the face of it ; and there- 
fore even the pretence is wanting to call it the word of God * it has 
not so much as a nominal voucher ; it is altogether fatherless. 

This book begins with the same expression as the book of Josh- 
ua. That of Joshua begins, chap. i. ver. 1, Now after the death of 
Moses, fyc. and this of Judges begins, .Now ajter the death of Josh- 
ua, &.c. This, and the similarity of style between the two books, 
indicate that they are the work of the same author ; but who he 
was, is altogether unknown : the only point that the book proves 
is, that the author lived long after the time of Joshua ; for though 
it begins as if it followed immediately after his death, the second 
chapter is an epitome or abstract of the whole book, which, accord- 
ing to the Bible chronology, extends its history through a space 
of 306 years ; that is, from the death of Joshua, 1426 years before 
Christ, to the death of Sampson, 1 120 years before Christ, and 
only 25 years before Saul went to seek his father's asses, and was 
made king. But there is good reason to believe, that it was not 
written till the time of David at least, and that the book of Joshua 
was not written before the same time. . ' 

j In the first chapter of Judges, the writer, after announcing the 
! death of Joshua, proceeds to tell what happened between the chil- 
| dren of Judah and the native inhabitants of the land of Canaan, 
j In this statement^ the writer, having abruptly mentioned Jerusalem 



92 THE AGE OF REASON. 

: -. > * i 

in the 7th verse, says immediately after, in the 8th verse, by wayv 
of explanation, "Now the children cf Judah had fought against 
Jerusalem, and taken it ;" consequently, this book could not hava< 
been written before Jerusalem had been taken. The reader wh% 
recollect the quotation I have just before made from the 15th chap-,: 
ter of Joshua, ver. 63, where it is said, that the Jebusites dwell with^ 
the children of Judah at Jerusalem at this day; meaning the time r 
when the book of Joshua was written. 

The evidence I have already produced, to prove that the books 
I have hitherto treated of were not written by the persons to whonij 
they are ascribed, nor till many years after their death, if such? 
persons ever lived, is already so abundant, that I can afford to ad- 
mit this passage with less weight than I am entitled to draw from] 
it. — For the case is, that so far as the Bible can be credited as an; 
history, the city of Jerusalem was not taken till the time of David; i 
and consequently, that the books of Joshua, and of Judges, were^ 
not written till after the commencement of the reign of David, 
which was 370 years after the death of Joshua. ;j 

The name of the city, that was afterwards called Jerusalem,; 
was originally Jebus or Jebusi, and was the capital of the Jebu-- 
sites. The account of David's taking the city is given in 2 Sam- 
uel, chap. v. ver. 4, &c. ; also in 1 Chron. chap. xiv. ver, 4, &c* 
There is no mention in any part of the Bible that it was ever taken j 
before, nor any account that favours such an opinion. It is not 
said, either in Samuel or in Chronicles, that they utterly destroyed i 
men, women, and children ; that they lejt not a soul to breathe, as is said a 
of their other conquests ; and the silence here observed implies t 
that it was taken by capitulation, and that the Jebusites, the na- ; 
tive inhabitants, continued to live in the place after it was taken* j 
The account, therefore, given in Joshua, that the Jebusites dwell 
with the children of Judah at Jerusalem at this day, corresponds to 
no other time than after the taking the city by David. h D 

Having now shown that every book in the Bible, from Genesis j| a 
to Judges, is without authenticity, I come to the book ofButh, and i 
idle, bungling story, foolishly told, nobody knows by whom, about jj q 
a strolling country girl creeping slily to bed to her cousin Boaz. b q 
Pretty stuff indeed to be called the word of God ! It is, however, a i 
one of the best books in the Bible, for it is free from murder and \ % 
rapine. J S s 

I come next to the two books of Samuel, and to show that those 9 $ 
books were not written by Samuel, nor till a great length of time ) i 
after the death of Samuel ; and that they are, like all the former > d 
books, anonymous, and without authority. t (qi 

To be convinced that these books have been written much la- | Q 
ter than the time of Samuel, and consequently not by him, it is ^ 
only necessary to read the account which the writer gives of 
Saul going to seek his father's asses, and of his interview with g, 
Samuel, of whom Saul went to inquire about those lost asses, as 



THE AGE OF REASON 93 

il •/ * , 

foolish people now-a-days go to a conjurer to inquire after lost 
things. 

The writer, in relating this story of Saul, Samuel, and the ass- 
es, does not tell it as a thing that had just then happened, but 
j as an ancient story in the time this writer lived ; for he tells it in 
the language or terms used at the time that Samuel lived, which 
obliges the writer to explain the story in the terms or language 
j used in the time the writer lived. 

Samuel, in the account given of him, in the first of those books, 
chap. ix. is called the seer ; and it is by this term that Saul in- 
quires after him, ver. 11, " And as they (Saul and his servant) 
went up the hill to the city, they found young maidens going out 
to draw water ; and they said unto them, Is the seer here V 7 Saul 
then went according to the direction of these maidens, and met 
| Samuel without knowing him, and said unto him, ver. 18, " Tell 
!me, I pray thee, where the seer's house is ? and Samuel answered 
Saul, and said, I am the seer." 

As the writer of the book of Samuel relates these questions 
and answers, in the language or manner of speaking used in the 
time they are said to have been spoken ; and as that manner of 
speaking was out of use when this author wrote, he found it ne- 
cessary, in order to make the story understood, to explain the 
terms in which these questions and answers are spoken ; and he 
does this in the 9th verse, where he says, " before-time, in Israel, 
when a man went to inquire of God, thus he spake, Come, let us 
go to the seer ; for he that is now called a prophet, was before- 
time called a seer." This proves, as I have before said, that 
this story of Saul, Samuel, and the asses, was an ancient story 
at the time the book of Samuel was written, and consequently 
that Samuel did not write it, and that that book is without au- 
thenticity. 

But if we go further into those books, the evidence is still 
more positive that Samuel is not the writer of them ; for they re- 
late things that did not happen till several years after the death 
of Samuel. Samuel died before Saul ; for the 1st Samuel, chap, 
xxviii. tells, that Saul and the witch of Endor conjured Samuel 
up after he was dead j yet the history of the matters contained 
in those books is extended through the remaining part of Saul's 
life, and to the latter end of the life of David, who succeeded 
Saul. The account of the death and burial of Samuel (a thing 
which he could not write himself) is related in the 25th chapter 
of the first book of Samuel ; and the chronology affixed to this 
chapter makes this to be 1060 years before Christ ; yet the his- 
tory of this first book is brought down to 1056 years before 
Christ ; that is, to the death of Saul, which was not till four 
years after the death of Samuel. 

The second book of Samuel begins with an account of things 
that did not happen till four years after Samuel was dead ; for it 



94 THE AGE OF REASON 

begins with the reign of David, who succeeded Saul, and it goes^ * 
on tb the end of David's reign, which was ^forty-three years af- 
ter the death of Samuel ; and therefore the books are in them- 
selves positive evidence that they were not written by Samuel. 

I have now gone through all the books in the first part of the F 
Bible, to which the names of persons are affixed, as being the 
authors of those books, and which the church, styling itself the 
Christian church, have imposed upon the world as the writings 
of Moses, Joshua, and Samuel ; and I have detected and proved 
the falsehood of this imposition. And now, ye priests of every 
description, who have preached and written against the former : 
part of the Age of Reason, what have ye to say ? Will ye, with- B 
all this mass of evidence against you, and staring you in the face, > 
still have the assurance to march into your pulpits, and continue 
to impose these books on your congregations, as the works of 
inspired penmen, and the word of God, when it is as evident as 1 
demonstration can make truth appear, that the persons who, ye 
say, are the authors, are not the authors, and that ye know not : 
who^the authors are. What shadow of pretence have ye now to. f 
produce, for continuing the blasphemous fraud ? What have ye 
still to offer against the pure and moral religion of Deism, in sup- « 
port of your system of falsehood, idolatry and pretended revela- ' : 
tion ? Had the cruel and murderous orders, with which the Bi- : 
ble is filled, and the numberless torturing executions of men, 
women, and children, in consequence of those orders, been as- i 
cribed to some friend, whose memory you revered, you would 
have glowed with satisfaction at detecting the falsehood of the 
charge, and gloried in defending his injured fame. It is because 
ye are sunk in the cruelty of superstition, or feel no interest in 
the honour of your Creator, that ye listen to the horrid tales of 
the Bible, or hear them with callous indifference. The evidence ' 
I have produced, and shall still produce in the course of this 
work, to prove that the Bible is without authority, will, whilst it 
wounds the stubbornness of a priest, relieve and tranquillize the 
minds of millions ; it will free them from all those hard thoughts I 
of the Almighty which priest-craft and the Bible had infused into ! 
their minds, and which stood in everlasting opposition to ail their 1 
ideas of his moral justice and benevolence. 

I come now to the two books of Kings, and the two books of 
Chronicles.. Those books are altogether historical, and are chief- 
ly confined to the lives and actions of the Jewish kings, who in 
general were a parcel of rascals ; but these are matters with 
which we have no more concern, than we have with the Roman 
emperors, or Homer's account of the Trojan war. Besides 
which, as those works are anonymous, and as we know nothing 
of the writer, or of his character, it is impossible for us to know 
what degree of credit to give to the matters related therein. Like 
ail other ancient histories, they appear to be a jumble of fable 



THE AGS OF REASON*. 



.95 



j and of fact, and of probable and of improbable things ; but 
I which, distance of time and place, and change of circumstances 
j in the world, have rendered obsolete and uninteresting. 

The chief use I shall make of those books, will be that of com- 
paring them with each other, and with other parts of the Bible, 
to show the confusion, contradiction, and cruelty, in this pre- 
tended word of God. 

The first book of Kings begins with the reign of Solomon, 
which, according to the Bible Chronology, was 1015 years be- 
fore Christ ; and the second book ends 588 years before Christ, 
being a little after the reign of Zedekiah, whom Nebuchadnez- 
zar, after taking Jerusalem, and conquering the Jews, carried 
captive to Babylon. The two books include a space of 427 
years. 

The two books of Chronicles are an history of the same time, 
and in general of the same persons, by another author ; for it 
would be absurd to suppose that the same author wrote the his- 
tory twice over. The first book of Chronicles, (after givmg the 
genealogy from Adam to Saul, which takes up the first nine 
chapters) begins with the reign of David ; and the last book 
ends as in the last book of Kings, soon after the reign of Zede- 
kiah, about 588 years before Christ. The two last verses of the 
last chapter bring the history 52 years more forward, that is, to 
536. But these verses do not belong to the book, as I shall 
show when 1 come to speak of the book of Ezra. 

The two books of Kings, besides the history of Saul, David, 
and Solomon, who reigned over all Israel, contain an abstract 
of the lives of seventeen kings and one queen, who are styled 
kings of Judah, and of nineteen, who are styted kings of Israel ; 
for the Jewish nation, immediately on the death of Solomon, split 
into two parties, who chose separate kings, and who carried 
on most rancorous wars against each other. 

Those two books . are little more than a history of assassina- 
tions, treachery, and wars. The cruelties that the Jews had 
accustomed themselves to practise on the Canaanites, whose 
country they had savagely invaded under a pretended gift from 
God, they afterwards practised as furiously on each other. 
Scarcely half their kings died a natural death, and in some in- 
stances whole families were destroyed to secure possession to 
the successor, who, after a few years, and sometimes only a few 
months, or less, shared the same fate. In the tenth chapter of 
the second book of Kings, an account is given of two baskets 
full of children's heads, 70 in number, being exposed at the en- 
trance of the city ; they were the children of Ahab, and were 
murdered by the orders of Jehu, whom Elisha, the pretended 
man of God, had anointed to be king over Israel, on purpose to 
commit this bloody deed, and assassinate his predecessor. And 
in the account of the reign of Manaham, one of the kings of 



.96- 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



Israel who had; murdered Shallum, who had reigned but one 
month, it is said, 2 Kings/chap. xv. ver. 16, that Manaham smote ; 
the citj of Tiphsah, because they opened not the city to him, u 
*$n& all the'ivamen that were therein that were with child they ripped 

up - " ' y ' r . 

Could we permit ourselves to suppose that the Almighty would [ 

distinguish any nation of people by the name of his chosen people, f 
we must suppose that people to have been an example to all the 
rest of the world of the purest piety and humanity, and not such 
a nation of ruffians and cut-throats as the ancient Jews were ; j 
a people, who, corrupted by, and copying after, such monsters , 
and impostors as Moses and Aaron, Joshua, Samuel, and David, \ 
had distinguished themselves above all others, on the face of the j , 
known earth, for barbarity and wickedness. If we will not stub- 
bornly shut our eyes, and steel our hearts, it is impossible not to , 
see, in spite of all that long-established superstition imposes upon 
the mind, that the flattering appellation of his chosen people is no 
other than a lie, which the priests and leaders of the Jews had 
invented, to cover the baseness of their own characters ; and 
which Christian priests, sometimes as corrupt, and often as 
cruel, have professed to believe. 

The two books of Chronicles are a repetition of the same 
crimes ; but the history is broken in several places, by the au- 
thor leaving out the reign of some of their kings ; and in this, as 
well as in that of Kings, there is such a frequent transition from 
kings of Judah to kings of Israel, and from kings of Israel to kings 
of Judah, that the narrative is obscure in the reading. In the 
same book the history sometimes contradicts itself ; for example, 
in the second book of Kings, chap. i. ver. 8, we are told, but in 
rather ambiguous terms, that after the death of Ahaziah, king of 
Israel, Jehoram, or Joram (who was of the house of Ahab) reign- 
ed in his stead in the second year of Jehoram, or Joram, son of 
Jehoshaphat king of Judah ; and in chap. viii. ver. 16, of the same 
book, it is said, and in the fifth year of Joram, the son of Ahab, 
king of Israel, Jehoshaphat being then king of Judah, began to 
reign ; that is, one chapter says Joram of Judah began to reign 
in the second year of Joram of Israel ; and the other chapter says, 
that Joram of Israel began to reign in the fifth year of J oram of 
Judah. 

v Several of the most extraordinary matters related in one his- 
tory, as having happened during the reign of such and such of 
their kings, are not to be found in the other, in relating the reign 
of the same king ; for example, the two first rival kings, after 
the death of Solomon, were Rehoboam and Jeroboam ; and in 
1 Kings, chap. xii. and xiii. an account is given of Jeroboam 
making an offering of burnt incense, and that a man, who is there 
called a man of God, cried out against the altar, chap. xiii. ver. 
2, " O altar ! altar ! thus saith the Lord ; Behold, a child shall 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and upon thee 
shall he offer the priests of the high places, and ,'bum incense 
upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee. 5 ' — Ver. 3, 
" And it came to pass, when king Jeroboam heard the saying of 
the man of God, which had cried against the altar in Bethel, that 
he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him ; 
and his hand which he put out against him dried up, so that he 
could not pull it in again to him." 

One would think that such an extraordinary case as this, (which 
is spoken of as a judgment) happening to the chief of one of the 
parties, and that at the first moment of the separation of the Is- 
raelites into two nations, would, if it had been true, been record- 
ed in both histories. But though men in latter times have be- 
lieved all that the prophets have said unto them, it does not appear 
these prophets or historians believed each other, they knew each 
other too well. 

A long account also is given in Kings about Elijah. It runs 
through several chapters, and concludes with telling, 2 Kings, 
chap. ii. ver 1.1, u And it came to pass, as they (Elijah and Eli- 
sha) still went on, and talked, that behold, there appeared a char- 
iot of fire and horses of fire, and parted them both assunder, and 
Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven Hum ! this the au- 
thor of Chronicles, miraculous as the story is, makes no mention 
of, though he mentions Elijah by name ; neither does he say any 
thing of the story related in the second chapter of the same book 
of Kings, of a parcel of children calling Elisha bald head, bald 
head ; and that this man of God, ver. 24, turned back, and look- 
ed upon them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord ; and there 
came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tore forty and two 
children of them." He also passes over in silence the story told, 
2 Kings, chap. xiii. that when they were burying a man in the 
sepulchre, where Elisha had been buried, it happened that the 
dead man, as they were letting him down, (ver. 21,) a touched 
the bones*~of Elisha, and he (the dead man) revived, and stood up- 
on his feet." The story does not tell us whether they buried the 
man notwithstanding he revived and stood upon his feet, or drew 
him up again. Upon all these stories, the writer of Chronicles 
is as silent as any writer of the present day, who did not choose 
to be accused of lying, or at least of romancing, would be about 
stories of the same kind. 

But, however these two historians may differ from each other, 
with respect to the tales related by either, they are silent alike 
with respect to those men styled prophets, whose writings fill up 
the latter part of the Bible. Isaiah, who lived in the time of 
Hezekiah, is mentioned in Kings, and again in Chronicles, when 
these historians are speaking of that -reign ; but except in one or 
two instances at most, and those very slightly, none of the rest 
are so much as spoken of, or even their existence hinted at ; 



98 



THE AGE OF REASOX. 



though, according to the bible chronology, the} lived within the 
time those histories were written ; some of them long before. If 
those prophets, as they are called, were men of such importance 
in their day, as the compilers of the Bible, and priests, and com- 
mentators have since represented them to be, how can it be ac- 
counted for, that not one of these histories should say any thing 
about them ? 

The history in the books of Kings and Chronicles is brought 
forward, as I have already said, to the year 588 before Christ ; it 
will therefore be proper to examine, which of these prophets liv- 
ed before that period. 

Here follows a table of all the prophets, with the times in which 
they lived before Christ, according to the Chronology affixed to 
the first chapter of each of the books of the prophets : and also 
of the number of years they lived before the books of Kings and 
Chronicles were written. 

Table of the Prophets, with the time in which they lived before Christ \ 
and also before th-e boohs of Kings and Chronicles were written. 



Names. 
Isaiah 
Jeremiah 



after the 
year 588 



Year? 
before 
Christ 
760 

629 



Years before 
Kings and 
Chronicles. 
172 

41 



Ezekiel - - 595 7 

Daniel - - 607 19 

Hosea - 785 97 

Joel - - 800 212 

Amos - - 789 199 

Obadiah - - 789 199 

Jonah - - 862 274 

Micah - - 750 162 

Nahum - 713 125 

Habakkuk - 620 38 

Zephaniah 
Haggai ) 
Zachariah > 
Malachi ) ' 

This table is either not very honourable for the Bible histori- 
ans, or not very honourable for the Bible prophets ; and I leave 
to priests and commentators, who are very learned in little things, 
to settle the point of etiquette between the two ; and to assign a 
reason, why the authors of Kings and Ghronicles have treated 
those prophets, whom in the former part of the Age of Reason, I 

* In 2 Kincrs, chap. xiv. ver. 25, the name of Jonah is mentioned on account of the 
restoration ofV tract of land by Jeroboam J but nothing further is said of him, nor w 
any allusion made to the book of Jonah, nor to his expedition to Ninevah, nor to hm 
encounter with the whale. 



Observations. - 

mentioned, 
c mentioned only in 
c the last ch. of Chron 
not mentioned, 
not mentioned, 
not mentioned, 
not mentioned, 
not mentioned, 
not mentioned, 
see the note.* 
not mentioned, 
not mentioned, 
not mentioned, 
not mentioned. 



¥&E1 ACrE OF KEASQjST, 



9S 



have considered as poets, with as much degrading silence as any 
historian of the present day would treat Peter Pindar. 

I have one observation more to make on the book of Chroni- 
cles ; after which I shall pass on to review the remaining books 
of the Bible. 

In my observations on the book of Genesis, I have quoted a 
passage from the 36th chapter, ver. 31, which evidently refers to 
a time, after that kings began to reign over the children of Isra- 
el ; and I have shown that as this verse is verbatim the same as 
in Chronicles, chap. i. ver. 43, where it stands consistently with 
the order of history, which in Genesis it does not, that the verse 
in Genesis, and a great part of the 36th chapter, have been taken 
from Chronicles \ and that the book of Genesis, though it is placed 
first in the Bible, and ascribed to Moses, has been manufactured 
by some unknown person, after the book of Chronicles was writ- 
ten, which was not until at least eight hundred and sixty years 
after the time of Moses. 

The evidence I proceed by to substantiate this is regular, and 
has in it but two stages. First, as I have already stated, that 
the passage in Genesis refers itself for time to Chronicles ; sec- 
ondly, that the book of Chronicles, to which this passage refers it- 
self, was not begun to be written until at least eight hundred and 
sixty years after the time of Moses. To prove this, we have on- 
ly to look into the thirteenth verse of the third chapter of the first 
book of Chronicles, where the writer, in giving the genealogy of 
the descendants of David, mentions Zedekiah ; and it was in the 
time of Zedekiah, that Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem, 
538 years before Christ, and consequently more than 860 years 
after Moses. Those who have superstitiously boasted of the an- 
tiquity of the Bible, and particularly of the books ascribed to Mo- 
ses, have done it without examination, and without any authority 
than that of one credulous man telling it to another : for, so far 
as historical and chronological evidence applies, the very first 
book in the Bible is not so ancient as the book of Homer, by 
more than three hundred years, and is about the same age with 
JSsop's Fables. 

I am not contending for the morality of Homer ; on the contra- 
ry, I think it a book of false glory, tending to inspire immoral 
and mischievous notions of honour : and with respect to iEsop, 
though the moral is in general just, the fable is often cruel ; and 
the cruelty of the fable does more injury to the heart, especially 
in a child, than the moral does good to the judgment. 

Having now dismissed Kings and Chronicles, I come to the 
next in course, the book of Ezra. 

As one proof, among others, I shall produce, to show the disor- 
der in which this pretended word of God, the Bible, has been put 
together, and the uncertainty of who the authors were, we have 
only to look at the three first verses in Ezra, and the two last in 



100 



/THE AGE OF REASON. 



Chronicles ; for by what kind of cutting and shuffling has it been 
that the three first verses in Ezra should be the two last verses 
in Chronicles, or that the two last verses in Chronicles should be 
the three first in Ezra ? Either the authors did not know their 
own works, ot the compilers did not know the authors. 



Two last verses of Chro7iicles. 
Ver. 22. Now in the first year 
of Cyrus, king of Persia, that 
the word of the Lord, spoken by 
the mouth of Jeremiah, might 
be accomplished, the Lord stir- 
red up the spirit of Cyrus, king 
of Persia, that he made a proc- 
lamation throughout all his 
kingdom, and put it also in wri- 
ting, saying. 

23. Thus saith Cyrus, king of 
Persia, all the kingdoms of the 
earth hath the Lord God of hea- 
ven given me ; and he hath 
charged me to build him an 
house in Jerusalem, which is in 
Judah. Who is there among 
you of all his people ? the Lord 
his God be with him, and let 
him go up. 



Three first verges of JEzra. 

Yer 1. Now in the first year 
of Cyrus, king of Persia, that 
the word of the Lord, by the 
mouth of Jeremiah, might be 
fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the 
spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, 
that he made a proclamation 
throughout all his kingdom, and 
put it also into writing, saying, 

2. Thus saith Cyrus, king of 
Persia, The Lord God of hea- 
ven hath given me all the king- 
doms of the earth ; and he hath 
charged me to build him an 
house at Jerusalem, which is in 
J udah. 

3. Who is there among you 
of all his people ? his God be 
with him, and let him go up, to 
Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and 
build the liouse of the Lord God 
of Israel (he is the God) which 
is in Jerusalem. 



The last verse in Chronicles is broken abruptly, and ends in 
the middle of a phrase with the word up, without signifying to 
what place. This abrupt break, and the appearance of the same 
verses in different books, show, as I have already said, the dis- 
order and ignorance in which the Bible has been put together, 
and that the compilers of it had no authority for what they were 
doing, nor we any authority for believing what they have done.* 

* I observed, as I passed along, several broken and senseless passages in the Bible, 
without thinking them of consequence enough to be introduced in the body of the 
work ; such as that, 1 Samuel, chap. xiii. ver. 1, where it is said, "Saul reigned one 
year ; and when he had reigned two years over Israel, Saul chose him three thousand 
men, &c," The first part of the verse, that Saul reigned one year, has no sense, 
since it does not tell us what Saul did, nor say any thing of what happened at the end 
of that one year ; and it is, besides, mere absurdity to say he reigned one year, when 
the very next phrase says he had reigned two ; for if he had reigned two, it was im- 
possible not to have reigned one. 

Another instance occurs m Joshua, chap. v. where the writer tells us a story of an 
angel (for such the table of contents at the head of the chapter calls him,) appearing 
unto Joshua ; and the story ends abruptly, and without any conclusion. The story is 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



101 



The only thing that has any appearance of certainty m the book 
of Ezra, is the time in which it was written, which was immedi- 
ately after the return of the Jews 1 from the Babylonian captivity, 
about 536 years before Christ. Ezra (who, according to the Jew- 
ish commentators, is the same person as is called Esdras in the 
Apocrypha) was one of the persons who returned, and who, it is 
probable, wrote the account of that affair. Nehemiah, whose book 
follows next to Ezra, was another of the returned persons ; and 
who, it is also probable, wrote the account of the same affair, in 
the book that bears his name. But those accounts are nothing to 
us, nor to any other persons, unless it be to the Jews, as a part of 
the history of their nation ; and there is just as much of the word 
of God in those books as there is in any of the histories of France, 
or Rapin's History of England, or the history of any other coun- 
try. 

But even in matters of historical record, neither of those writers 
are to be depended upon. In the second chapter of Ezra, the 
writer gives a list of the tribes and families, and of the precise num- 
ber of souls of each that returned from Babylon to Jerusalem ; and 
this enrolment of the persons so returned, appears to have been 
one of the principal objects for writing the book ; but in this there 
is an error that destroys the intention of the undertaking. 

The writer begins his enrolment in the following manner : — 
chap. ii. ver. 3, "The children of Parosh, two thousand one hun- 
dred seventy and four." Yerse 4, "The children of Shephatiah, 
three hundred seventy and two." And in this manner he pro- 
ceeds through all the families ; and in the 64th verse, he makes a 
total, and says, the whole congregation together was forty and two 
thousand three hundred and three score. 

But whoever will take the trouble of casting up the several par- 
ticulars, will find that the total is but 29,818 ; so that the error is 

as follows : — Ver. 13, "And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lift- 
ed up his eyes and looked, and behold there stood a man over against him with his 
sword drawn in his hand ; and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for 
us, or for our adversaries 1" Verse 14, "And he said, Nay ; but as the captain of the 
hosts of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did 
worship, and said unto him, What sakh my Lord unto his servant V Verse 15, "And 
the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for 
the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so." — And what then 1 no- 
thing ; for here the story ends, and the chapter too. 

Either this story is broken off in the middle, or It is a story told by some Jewish hu- 
mourist, in ridicule of Joshua's pretended mission from God ; and the compilers of the 
Bible, not perceiving the design of the story, have told it as a serious matter. As a sto- 
ry of humour and ridicule, it has a great deal of point; for it pompously introduces an 
angel in the figure of a man, with a drawn sword in his hand, before whom Joshua falls 
on his face to the earth, and worships, (which is contrary to their second command- 
ment;) and then, this most important embassy from heaven ends, in telling Joshua to 
pull off his shoe. It might as well have told him to pull up his breeches. 

It is certain, however, that the Jews did not credit every thing their leaders told 
them, as appears from the cavalier manner in which they speak of Moses, when he 
was gone into the mount. "As for this Moses, say they, we wot not what is become of 
him." Exod. chap, xxxii. ver. 1. 

9* 



102 THE AGE OF REASON. 

I V 

12,542. # What certainty then can there be in the Bible for any- 
thing ? j I 

Nehemiah, in like manner, gives a list of the returned families, 
and of the number of each family. He begins as in Ezra, by say- 
ing, chap. vii. ver. 8, "The children of Parosh, two thousand 
three hundred and seventy-two and so on through all the fam- 
ilies. The list differs in several of the particulars from that of t 
Ezra. In the 66th verse, Nehemiah makes a total, and says, as 
Ezra had said, "The whole congregation together was forty and 
two thousand three hundred and three score." But the particu- 
lars of this list make a total but of 31,089, so that the error here is 
1 1 ,27 1 . These writers may do well enough for Bible-makers, but j | 
not for any thing where truth and exactness is necessary. The 
next book in course is the book of Esther. If Madam Esther 
thought it any honour to offer herself as a kept mistress to Ahas- 
uerus, or as a rival to Queen Yashty, who had refused to come to 
a drunken king, in the midst of a drunken company, to be made a 
show of (for the account says, they had been drinking seven days, 
and were merry,) let Esther and Mordicai look to that, it is no 
business of ours ; at least, it is none of mine ; besides which the 
story has a great deal the appearance of being fabulous, and is 
also anonymous. I pass on to the book of Job. 

The book of J ob differs in character from all the books we have 
hitherto passed over. Treachery and murder make no part of this 
book ; it is the meditations of a mind strongly impressed with the 
vicissitudes of human life, and by turns sinking under, and strug- 
gling against the pressure. It is a highly wrought composition, be- 
tween willing submission and involuntary discontent ; and shows 
man, as he sometimes is, more disposed to be resigned than he is 
capable of being. Patience has but a small share in the charac- 
ter of the person of whom the book treats ; on the contrary, his 
grief is often, impetuous ; but he still endeavours to keep a guard 
upon it, and seems determined, in the midst of accummulating ills, 
to impose upon himself the hard duty of contentment. 

I have spoken in a respectful manner of the book of Job in the 
former part of the Age of Reason, but without knowing a,t that time 





Particulars of the Families from the second chapter of Ezra. 




Chap. II. 




Bro'jtforw. 12,243 


Bro't forw.15,953 


Bro't forw 


.24,144 ! 


Verse 3 


2172 


Ver. 14 


2056 


Ver. 25 


743 


Ver. 36 


973 


4 


372 


15 


454 


26 


621 


37 


1052 


5 


775 


16 


98 


27 


122 


38 


1247 


6 


2812 


17 


323 


28 


223 


39 


1017 


7 


1254 


18 


112 


29 


52 


40 


74 


8 


945 


19 


223 


30 


156 


41 


128 


9 


760 


20 


95 


31 


1254 


42 


139 


10 


642 


21 


123 


32 


320 


58 


392 


11 


623 


22 


56 


33 


725 


GO 


652 


12 


1222 


23 


128 


34 


345 






13 


666 


24 


42 


35 


3630 








12,243 




15,953 




24,144 


Total, 


29,818 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



103 



what I have learned since ; which is, that from all the evidence 
that can be collected, the book of Job does not belong to the 
Bible. 

I have seen the opinion of two Hebrew commentators, Abenezra 
and Spinosa, upon this subject ; they both say that the book of Job 
carries no internal evidence of being an Hebrew book ; that the 
genius of the composition, and drama of the piece, are not He- 
brew ; that it has been translated from another language into He- 
brew, and that the author of the book was a Gentile ; that the 
character represented under the name of Satan (which is the first 
and only time this name is mentioned in the Bible) does not cor- 
respond to any Hebrew idea ; and that the two convocations which 
the Deity is supposed to have made of those, whom the poem calls 
sons of God, and the familiarity which this supposed Satan is sta- 
ted to have with the Deity, are in the same case. 

It may also be observed, that the Ipook shows itself to be the 
production of a mind cultivated in science, which the Jews, so far 
from being famous for, were very ignorant of. The allusions to • 
objects of natural philosophy are frequent and strong, and are of a 
different cast to any thing in the books known to be Hebrew. The 
astronomical names, Pleiades, Orion, and Arcturus, are Greek, 
and not Hebrew names ; and as it does not appear from any thing 
that is to be found in the Bible, that the Jews knew any thing of 
astronomy, or that they studied it, they had no translation of those 
names into their own language, but adopted the names as they 
found them in the poem. 

That the Jews did translate the literary productions of the Gen- 
tile nations into the Hebrew language, and mix them with their 
own, is not a matter of doubt ; the thirty-first chapter of Proverbs 
is an evidence of this ; it is there said, ver. 1 , The word of king 
Lemuel, the prophecy which his mother taught him. This verse 
stands as a preface to the proverbs that follow, and which are not 
the proverbs of Solomon, but of Lemuel ; and this Lemuel was not 
one of the kings of Israel, nor of Judah, but of some other country, 
and consequently a Gentile. The Jews, however, have adopted 
his proverbs, and as they cannot give any account who the author 
of the book of Job was, nor how they came by the book ; and as it 
differs in character from the Hebrew writings, and stands totally 
unconnected with every other book and chapter in the Bible before 
it, and after it, it has all the circumstantial evidence of being orig- 
inally a book of the Gentiles.*' 

* The prayer known by the name of Agur's Prayer, in the 30th chapter of Pro- 
verbs, immediately preceding the proverbs of Lemuel, and which is the only sensible, 
well-conceived, and well -expressed prayer in the Bible, has much the appearance of 
being a prayer taken from the Gentiles. The name of Agur occurs on no other occas- 
ion than this ; and he is introduced, together with the prayer ascribed to him, in the 
Fame manner, and nearly in the same words, that Lemuel and his proverbs are intro- 
duced in die chapter that follows. The first verse of the 30th chapter says, "The 
words of Agur, the son of Iakeh, even the prophecy here the word prophecy is used 



104 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



The Bible -maker 8, and those regulators of time ? the Chronolo- 
gists, appear to have been at a loss whe*e to place, and how to dis- 
pose of the book of Job ; for it contains no one historical circum- 
stance, nor allusion te> any, that might serve to determine its place 
in the Bible. But it would not have answered the purpose of 
these men .to have informed the world of their ignorance ; and 
therefore they have affixed it to the sera of 1520 years before 
Christ, which is during the time the Israelites were in Egypt, and 
for which they have just as much authority and no more than I 
should have for saying it was u, thousand years before that period. 
The probability, however, is, that it is older than any book in the 
Bible ; and it is the only one that can be read without indignation 
or disgust. 

We know nothing of what the ancient Gentile world (as it is 
called) was before the time of the Jews, whose practice has been 
to calumniate and blacken the character of all other nations ; and 
it is from the J ewish accounts that we frave learned to call them 
heathens. But as far as we know to the contrary, they were a just 
and moral people, and not addicted, like the Jews, to cruelty and 
revenge, but of whose profession of faith we are unacquainted. It 
appears to have been their custom to personify both virtue and 
vice by statues and images, as is done now-a-days both by statuary 
and by painting ; but it does not follow from this, that they wor- 
shipped them any more than we do. I pass on to the Book of 

Psalms, of which it is not necessary to make much observation. 
Some of them are moral, and others are very revengeful ; and the 
greater part relates to certain local circumstances of the Jewish 
nation at the time they were written, with which we have nothing 
to do. It is, however, an error or an imposition to call them the 
Psalms of David : they are a collection, as song -books are now- 
a-days, from different song-writers, who lived at different times. 
The 137th Psalm could not have been written till more than 400 
years after the time of David, because it is written in commemora- 
tion of an event, the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, which did 
not happen till that distance of time. " By the rivers of Babylon we 
sat down ; yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our 
harps upon the willows , in the midst thereof ; for there they that car- 
ried us away captive, required of us a song, saying, sing us one of 
the songs of Zion." As a man would say to an American, or to a 
v Frenchman, or to an Englishman, sing us one of your American 
songs, or your French songs, or your English songs. This remark 
with respect to the time this Psalm was written, is of no other use 

with the same application it has in the following chapter of Lemuel, unconnected with 
any thing of prediction. The prayer of Agur is in the 8th and 9th verses, i( Remove 
far from me vanity and lies; give me neither riches nor poverty, but feed me 
with food convenient for me : lest I be full and deny thee, and say, Who is the 
Lord ! or lest I be poor and steal, and take the name of my God in vain." This 
has not any of the marks of being a Jewish prayer, for the Jews never prayed but 
when they were in trouble, and never for any tiling but victory, vengeance, and riches. 



THE AGE OP ItEASOtf. 105 

than to show (among others already mentioned) the general impo- 
sition the world has been under, with respect to the authors of the 

I Bible. No regard has been paid to time, place, and circumstance ; 

j and the names of persons have been affixed to the several books, 
which it was as impossible they should write, as that a man should 

I walk in procession at his own funeral. 

The Book of Proverbs. These, like the Psalms, are a collec- 
tion, and that from authors belonging to other nations than those 

I of the Jewish nation, as I have shown in the observations upon 

! the book of Job ; besides which, some of the proverbs ascribed to 
Solomon, did not appear till two hundred and fifty years after the 
death of Solomon ; for it is said in the 1st verse of the 25th chap- 
ter, u These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah, 

! 1&ng of Judahy copied out." It was two hundred and fifty years 
from the time of Solomon to the time of Hezekiah. When a man 

I is famous, and his name is abroad, he is made the putative father 

| of things he never said or did ; and this, most probably, has been 
the case with Solomon. It appears to have been the fashion of 
that day to make proverbs, as it is now to make jest-books, and 
father them upon those who never saw them. 

The Book of Ecclesiastes, or the Preacher, is also ascribed to 
Solomon, and that with much reason, if not with truth. It is writ- 
ten as the solitary reflections of a worn-out debauchee, such as 
Solomon was, who looking back on scenes he can no longer enjoy, 
cries out, Ml is vanity ! A great deal of the metaphor and of the 
sentiment is obscure, most probably by translation ; but enough is 
left to show they were strongly pointed in the original.* From 
what is transmitted to us of the character of Solomon, he was wit- 
ty, ostentatious, dissolute, and at last melancholy. He lived fast, 
and died, tired of the world, at the age of fifty-eight years. 

Seven hundred wives, and three hundred concubines, are worse 
than none ; and however it may carry with it the appearance of 
heightened enjoyment, it defeats all the felicity of affection, by 
leaving it no point to fix upon ; divided love is never happy. This 
was the case, with Solomon : and if he could not, with all his pre- 
tensions to wisdom, discover it beforehand, he merited, unpitied, 
;the mortification he afterwards endured. In this point of view, his 
preaching is unnecessary, because, to know the consequences, it is 
only necessary to know the cause. Seven hundred wives, and 
three hundred concubines, would have stood in place of the whole 
book. It was needless after this to say, that all was vanity and 
vexation of spirit ; for it is impossible to derive happiness from 
the company of those whom we deprive of happiness. 

T^> be happy in old age, it is necessary that we accustom our-* 
selves to objects that can accompany the mind all the way through 

* Those that look out of the window shall be darkened, is an obscure figure w 
translation for loss of sight. 



106 , 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



life, and that we take the rest as good in their day. The mere 
man of pleasure is miserable in old age ; and the mere drudge in 
business is but little better : whereas, natural philosophy, mathe- 
matical and mechanical science, are a continual source of tran- 
quil pleasure ; and in spite of the gloomy dogmas of priests, and 
of superstition, Che study of those things is the study of the true 
theology ; it teaches man to know and to admire the Creator, for 
the principles of science are in the creation, and are unchangeable, 
and of divine origin. 

Those who knew Benjamin Franklin will recollect, that his 
mind was ever young ; his temper ever serene : science, that nev- 
er grows grey, was always his mistress. He was never without 
an object, for when we cease to have an object, we become like 
an invalid in an hospital waiting for death. 

Solomon's Songs are amorous and foolish enough, but which 
wrinkled fanaticism has called divine. The compilers of the Bi- 
ble have placed these songs after the book of Ecclesiastes ; and 
the chronologists have affixed to them the sera of 1014 years before 
Christ, at which time Solomon, according to the same chronology, 
was nineteen years of age, and was then forming his seraglio of 
wives and concubines. The Bible-makers and the chronologists 
should have managed this matter a little better, and either have 
said nothing about the time, or chosen a time less inconsistent with 
the supposed divinity of those songs ; for Solomon was then in the 
honey-moon of one thousand debaucheries. 

It should also have occurred to them, that as he wrote, if he 
did write, the book of Ecclesiastes, long after these songs, and 
in which he exclaims, that all is vanity and vexation of spirit ; 
that he included those songs in that description. This is the 
more probable, because he says, or somebody for him, Ecclesias- 
tes, chap. ii. v. 8, u I got me men singers, and women singers , 
(most probably to sing those songs) and musical instruments of all 
sorts ; and behold (ver. 1 1.,) all was vanity and vexation of spirit." 
The compilers, however, have done their work but by halves ; 
for as they have given us the songs, they should have given us 
the tunes, that we might sing them. 

The books, called the books of the Prophets, fill up all the re- 
maining part of the Bible ; they are sixteen in number, begin- 
ning with Isaiah, and ending with Malachi ; of which I have 
given you a list, in the observations upon Chronicles. Of these 
sixteen prophets, all of whom, except the three last, lived with- 
in the time the books of Kings and Chronicles were written ; 
two only, Isaiah and Jeremiah, are mentioned in the history of 
those books. I shall begin with those two, reserving what I 
have to say on the general character of the men called prophets 
to another part of the work, 

Whoever will take the trouble of reading the book ascribed to 
Isaiah, will find it one of the most wild and disorderly composi- 



*THE AGE OF REASON. 



107 



tions ever put together ; it has neither beginning, middle, nor end ; 
and except a short historical part, and a few sketches of his- 
tory in two or three of the first chapters, is one continued inco- 
herent, bombastical rant, full of extravagant methaphor, without 
application, and destitute of meaning ; a school-boy would scarce- 
ly have been excusable for writing such stuff ; it is (at least in 
the translation) that kind of composition and false taste, that is 
properly called prose run mad. 

The historical part begins at the 36th chapter, and is continu- 
ed to the end of the 39th chapter. It relates to some matters that 
are said to have passed during the reign of Hezekiah, king of Ju- 
dah, at which time Isaiah lived. This fragment of history be- 
gins and ends abruptly ; it has not the least connection with the 
chapter that precedes it, nor with that which follows it, nor with 
any other in the book. It is probable that Isaiah wrote this 
fragment himself, because he was an actor in the circumstances 
it treats of ; but, except this part, there are scarcely two chap- 
ters that have any connection with each other ; one is entitled, 
at the beginning of the first verse, the burden of Babylon ; an- 
other, the burden of Moab ; another, the burden of Darifascus ; 
another, the burden of Egypt ; another the burden of the Desart 
of the Sea ; another, the burden of the Yalley of Yision ; as 
you would say, the story of the knight of the burning mountain, 
the story of Cinderella, or the children in the wood, &c. &c. 

I have already shown, in the instance of the two last verses of 
Chronicles, and the three first in Ezra, that the compilers of the 
Bible mixed and confounded the writings of different authors 
with each other, which alone, were there no other cause, is suf- 
ficient to destroy the authenticity of any compilation, because 
it is more than presumptive evidence that the compilers are 
ignorant who the authors were. - A very glaring instance of this 
occurs in the book ascribed to Isaiah, the latter part of the 44th 
chapter, and the beginning of the 45th, so far from having been 
written by Isaiah, could only have been written by some person 
who lived, at least, an hundred and fifty years after Isaiah was 
dead. 

These chapters are a compliment to Cyrus, who permitted the 
Jews to return to Jerusalem from the Babylonian captivity, to 
rebuild Jerusalem and the temple, as is stated in Ezra. The 
last verse of the 44th chapter, and the beginning of the 45th, are 
in the following words : " That saith of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, 
and shall perform all my pleasure ; even saying to Jerusalem, thou 
shall he built ; and to the temple, thy foundations shall be laid ; thus 
sailh the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have 
holden to subdue nations before him, and I will loose the loins (f kings 
to open before him the two-leaved gates, and the gates shall not be 
shut ; I will go before thee, fyc." 



108 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



What audacity of church and priestly ignorance it is to impose 
this book upon the world as the writing of Isaiah, when Isaiah, 
according to their own chronology, died soon after the death of 
Hezekiah, which was 698 years before Christ ; and the decree 
of Cyrus, in favor of the Jews returning to Jerusalem, was, ac- 
cording to the same chronology, 536 years before Christ ; which 
was a distance of time between the two of 162 years. I do not 
suppose that the compilers of the Bible made these books, but 
rather that they picked up some loose, anonymous essays, and 
put them together under the names of such authors as best suit- 
ed their purpose. They have encouraged the imposition, which 
is next to inventing it ; for it was impossible but they must 
have observed it. 

When we see the studied craft of the scripture-makers, in 
making every part of this romantic book of school-boy's elo- 
quence, bend to the monstrous idea of a Son of God, begotten 
by a ghost on the body of a virgin, there is no imposition we are 
not justified in suspecting them of. Every phrase and circum- 
stance are marked with the barbarous hand of superstitious tor- 
ture, and forced into meanings it was impossible they could have. 
The head of every chapter, and the top of every page, are blaz- 
oned with the names of Christ and the church, that the unwary 
reader might suck in the error before he began to read. 

Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, Isaiah, chap. vii. 
ver. 14, has been interpreted to mean the person called Jesus 
Christ, and his mother Mary, and has been echoed through Chris- 
tendom for more than a thousand years ; and such has been the 
rage of this opinion, that scarcely a spot in it but has been stain- 
ed with blood and marked with desolation in consequence of it. 
Though it is not my intention to enter into controversy on sub- 
jects of this kind, but to confine myself to show that the Bible is 
spurious ; and thus, by taking away the foundation, to over- 
throw at once the whole structure of superstition raised thereon ; 
I will, however, stop a moment to expose the fallacious applica- 
tion of this passage. 

Whether Isaiah was playing a trick with Ahaz, king of Judah, 
to whom this passage is spoken, is no business ©f mine ; I mean 
only to show the misapplication of the passage, and that it has no 
more reference to Christ and his mother, than it has to me and 
my mother. The story is simply this : 

The king of Syria and the king of Israel (I have already men- 
tioned that the Jews were split into two nations, one of which 
was called Judah, the capital of which was Jerusalem, and the 
other Israel) made war jointly against Ahaz, king of Judah, and 
marched their armies towards Jerusalem. Ahaz and his people 
became alarmed, and the account says, ver. 2. " Their hearts 
were moved as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind n 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



109 



In this situation of things, Isaiah addresses himself to Ahaz, 
and assures him in the name of the Lord (the cant phrase of all 
the prophets) that these two kings should not succeed against 
him ; and to satisfy Ahaz that this should be the case, tells him 
to ask a sign. This, the account says, Ahaz declined doing ; 
giving as a reason, that he would not tempt the Lord ; upon which 
Isaiah, who is the speaker, says, ver. 14, " Therefore the Lord 
himself shall give you a sign ; behold a virgin shall conceive, and 
bear a son ;" and the 16th verse says, " And before this child 
shall know to refuse tJie evil, and choose the good, the land which 
thou abhorrest or dreadest (meaning Syria and the kingdom of 
Israel) shall be forsaken of both her kings." Here then was 
the sign, and the time limited for the completion of the assur- 
ance or promise ; namely, before this child should know to re- 
fuse the evil, and choose the good. 

Isaiah having committed himself thus far, it became necessary 
to him, in order to avoid the imputation of being a false prophet, 
and the consequence thereof, to take measures to make this sign 
appear. It certainly was not a difficult thing, in any time of the 
world, to find a girl with' child, or to make her so ; and perhaps 
Isaiah knew of one before-hand ; for I do not suppose that the 
prophets of that day were any more to be trusted than the priests 
of this : be that however as it may, he says in the next chapter, 
ver. 2, " And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah 
the priest, and Zechartahrthe son of Jeberechiah, and I went unto 
the prophetess, and she conceived and bare a son." 

Here then is the whole story, foolish as it is, of this child and 
this virgin ; and it is upon the bare-faced perversion of this story, 
that the book of Matthew, and the impudence and sordid interests 
of priests in latter times, have founded a theory which they call 
the gospel ; and have applied this story to signify the person they 
call Jesus Christ ; begotten, they say, by a ghost, whom they 
call holy, on the body of a woman, engaged in marriage, and 
afterwards married, whom they call a virgin, 7 00 years after this 
foolish story was told ; a theory which, speaking for myself, I 
hesitate not to believe, and to say, is as fabulous and as false as 
God is true.* 

But to show the imposition and falsehood of Isaiah, we have 
only to attend to the sequel of this story ; which, though it is 
passed over in silence in the book of Isaiah, is related in the 28th 
chapter of the second Chronicles ; and which is, that instead of 
these two kings failing in their attempt against Ahaz, king of J u- 
dah, as Isaiah had pretended to foretel in the name of the Lord, 
they succeeded ; Ahaz was defeated and destroyed ; an hun- 

* In the 14th verse of the vii. chapter, it is said, that the child should be called 
Immanuel; but this name was not given to either of the children, otherwise than as 
a character, which the word signifies. That of the prophetess was caled Maher- 
shalal-hash-baz, and that of Mary was called Jesus. 

10 



11U 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



dred and twenty thousand of his people were slaughtered ; J e- 
rusalem was plundered, and two hundred thousand women, and 
sons and daughters, carried into captivity. Thus much for this 
lying prophet and impostor Isaiah, and the book of falsehoods 
that bears his name. I pass on to the book of 

Jeremiah. This prophet, as he is called, lived in the time 
that Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, in the reign of Zede- 
kiah, the last king of Judah ; and the suspicion was strong 
against him, that he was a traitor in the interest of Nebuchad- 
nezzar. Every thing relating to Jeremiah shows him to have 
been a man of an equivocal character ; in his metaphor of the 
potter and the clay, c. xviii. he guards his prognostications in such 
a crafty manner, as always to leave himself a door to escape by, 
in case the event should be contrary to what he had predicted. 

In the 7th and 8th verses of that chapter, he makes the Al- 
mighty to say, " At what instant I shall speak concerning a na- 
tion, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, 
and destroy it ; if that nation, against whom I have pronounced, 
turn from their evil, I will repent me of the evil that I thought to_ 
do unto them." Here was a proviso against one side of the 
case ; now for the other side. 

Verses 9 and 10, " At what instant I shall speak concerning 
a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, if it 
do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice ; then I will repent 1 
me of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them." Here 
is a proviso against the other side ; and, according to this plan 
of prophesying, a prophet could never be wrong, however mis- 
taken the Almighty might be. This sort of absurd subterfuge, 
and this manner of speaking of the Almighty, as one would speak 
of a man, is consistent with nothing but the stupidity of the Bible. 

As to the authenticity of the book, it is only necessary to read 
it in order to decide positively, that, though some passages record- 
ed therein may have been spoken by Jeremiah, he is not the au- 
thor of the book. The historical parts, if they can be called by 
that name, are in the most confused condition : the same events 
are several times repeated, and that in a manner different, and 
sometimes in contradiction to each other ; and this disorder runs 
even to the last chapter, where the history, upon which the great- 
er part of the book has been employed, begins a-new, and ends 
abruptly. The book has all the appearance of being a medley 
of unconnected anecdotes, respecting persons and things of that 
time, collected together in the same rude manner as if the various 
and contradictory accounts, that are to be found in a bundle of 
newspapers, respecting persons and things of the present day, 
were put together without date, order, or explanation. I will give 
two or three examples of this kind. 

It appears, from the account of the 37th chapter, that the ar- 
my of Nebuchadnezzar, which is called the army of the Chal- 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



Ill 



cleans, had besieged Jerusalem some time ; and on their hearing 
that the army of Pharaoh, of Egypt, was marching against them, 
they raised the siege, and retreated for a time. It may here be 
proper to mentiqn, in order to understand this confused history, 
that Nebuchadnezzar had besieged and taken Jerusalem, during 
the reign of Jehoiakim, the predecessor of Zedekiah ; and that 
it was Nebuchadnezzar who had made Zedekiah king, or rather 
vice-roy ; and that this second siege, of which the book of Jere- 
miah treats, was in consequence of the revolt of Zedekiah against 
Nebuchadnezzar. This will, in some measure, account for the 
suspicion that affixes itselPto Jeremiah, of being a traitor, and in 
the interest of Nebuchadnezzar ; whom Jeremiah calls, in tho 
43d chap. ver. 10, the servant of God. 

The Ilth verse of this chapter (the 37th,) says, " And it cam*) 
*o pass, that, when the army of the Chaldeans was broken up from 
Jerusalem, for fear of Pharaoh's army, that Jeremiah went forth 
out of Jerusalem, to go (as this account states,) into the land of 
Benjamin, to separate himself thence in the midst of the people ; 
and when he was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the ward 
was there, whose name was Irijah ; and he took Jeremiah the 
prophet, saying, Thou fallest away to the Chaldeans \ then Jere- 
miah said, It is false, I fall not away to the Chaldeans. Jeremi- 
ah being thus stopped and accused, was, after being examined, 
committed to prison, on suspicion of being a traitor, where he re- 
mained, as is stated in the last verse of this chapter. 

But the next chapter gives an account of the imprisonment of 
J eremiah, which has no connection with this account, but ascribes 
his imprisonment to another circumstance, and for which we must 
go back to the the 21st chapter. It is there stated, ver. 1, that 
Zedekiah sent Pashur, the son of Malchiah, and Zephaniah, the 
son of Maaseiah the priest, to Jeremiah, to inquire of him con- 
cerning Nebuchadnezzar, whose army was then before Jerusa- 
lem ; and Jeremiah said to them, ver. 8, " Thus saith the Lord, 
Behold I set before you the way of life, and the way of death ; 
he that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the 
famine, and by the pestilence ; but he that goeth out and falleth 
to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall 
be unto him for a prey." This interview and conference breaks 
off abruptly at the end of the 10th verse of the 21st chapter ; and 
such is the disorder of this book, that we have to pass over six- 
teen chapters, upon various subjects, in order to come at the con- 
tinuation and event of this conference ; and this brings us to the 
first verse of the 38th chapter, as I have just mentioned. 

The 38th chapter opens with saying, " Then Shephatiah, the 
son of Mattan ; Gedaliah, the son of Pashur ; and Juhal, the 
son of Shelemiah ; and Pashur, the son of Malchiah ; (here are 
more persons mentioned than in the 21st chapter) heard the words 
that Jeremiah spoke unto the people, saying, Thus saith the Lord, 



112 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



He that remaineth in this city, shall die by the sword, by the famine, 
and by the pestilence ; but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall 
live ; for he shall have his life for a prey, and shall live ; (which are 
the words of the conference) therefore, (say they to Zedekiah,) we 
beseech thee, let us put this man to death, for thus he weakeneth 
the hands of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of 
all the people in speaking such words unto them ; for this man seekeih 
not the welfare of the people, but the hurt .*" and at the 6th verse it is 
said, " Then they took Jeremiah, and put him into a dungeon of 
Malchiah." 

These two accounts are different and contradictory. The one 
ascribes his imprisonment to his attempt to escape out of the ci- 
ty ; the other to his preaching and prophesying in the city ; the 
one to his being seized by the guard at the gate ; the other to his 
being accused before Zedekiah, by the conferees.* 

In the next chapter (the 39th) we have another instance of the 
disordered state of this book : for notwithstanding the siege of the 
city, by Nebuchadnezzar, has been the subject of several of the 
precedin g chapters, particularly the 37th and 38th; the 39th chap- 
ter begins as if not a word had been said upon the subject ; and as 
if the reader w r as to be informed of every particular respecting 
it ; for it begins with saying, ver. 1, "In the ninth year of Zedekiah, 
king of Judah, in the tenthnionth, came JYebucliadnezzar, king of Baby- 
lon, and all his army, against Jerusalem, and besieged it, Stc. &c." 

But the instance in the last chapter (the 52d) is still more glar- 
ing ; for though the story has been told over and over again, this 

* I observed two chapters, 16th andl7th, in the first book of Samuel, that contradict 
each other with respect to David, and the manner he became acquainted with Saul ; as 
the 37th and 38th chapters of the book of Jeremiah contradict each other with respect 
to the cause of Jeremiah's imprisonment. 

In the 16th chapter of Samuel, it is said, that an evil spirit of God troubled Saul, 
and that his servants advised him (as a remedy) "to seek out a man who was a cun- 
ning player upon the harp." And Saul said, ver. 17, "Provide now a man that can 
play well, and bring him unto me." Then answered one of his servants, and said, Be- 
hold, I have seen a son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing, and a 
mighty man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, aud a cornel v person, and 
the Lord is with him; wherefore Saul sent messengers unto Jesse, and said, u Send 
me David, thy son." - And (vejrse 21) David came to Saul, and stood before him, and 
he loved him greatly 5 and he became his armour-bearer; and when the evil Spirit of 
God was upon Saul, (verse 23) David took his harp, and played with his hand, and 
Saul was refreshed, and was well. 

But the next chapter (17) gives an account, all different to this, of the manner 
that Saul and David became acquainted. Here it is ascribed to David's encoun- 
ter with ^roliah, when David was sent by his father to carry provision to his breth- 
ren in the camp. In the 55th verse of this chapter it is said, "And when Saul 
saw David go forth against the Philistine, (Goliah) he said to Abner, the captain 
of the Host, Abner, whose son is this youth 1 And Abner said, As thy soul liveth, 
O king, I cannot tell. And the king said, Inquire thou whose son the stripling is 
And as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him and 
brought him before Saul, with the head of the Philistine in his hand; and Saul 
said unto him, Whose -son art thou, thou young man ? And David answered, " I am 
the son of thy servant Jesse, the Bethlehemite." These two accounts belie each 
other, because each of them supposes Saul and David not to have known each oth- 
er before. This book, the bible, is too ridiculous even for criticism. 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



US 



chapter still supposes the reader not to know any thing of it, for it 
begins by saying, ver. 1, "Zedekiah was one and twenty years old 
when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem, and 
his mother f s name ivas Hamutal,'the daughter of Jeremiah of LibnaJt, 
(ver. 4.) and it came to pass, in the ninth year of his reign, in the 
tenth month, that JYebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came, he and 
all his army, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it, and built 
forts against it, &,c. &c." 

It is not possible that any one man, and more particularly Jere- 
miah, could have been the writer of this book. The errors are 
such as could not have been committed by any person sitting down 
to compose a work. Were I, or any other man, to write in such 
a disordered manner, nobody would read what was written ; and 
every body would suppose that the writer was in a state of insan- 
ity. The only way, therefore, to account for this disorder, is, that 
the book is a medley of detached unauthenticated anecdotes, put 
together by some stupid book-maker, under the name of Jeremi- 
ah ; because many of them refer to him, and to the circumstances 
of the times he lived in. 

Of the duplicity, and of the false predictions of Jeremiah, I shall 
mention two instances, and then proceed to review the remainder 
of the Bible. 

It appears from the 38th chapter, that when Jeremiah was in 
prison, Zedekiah sent for him, and at this interview, which was 
private, Jeremiah pressed it strongly on Zedekiah to surrender 
himself to the enemy. "If says he, (ver. 17 ,) thou wilt assuredly 
go forth unto the king of Babylon's princes, then thy soul shall live, 
&,c." Zedekiah was apprehensive that what passed at this con- 
ference should be known ,* and he said to Jeremiah, (ver. 25,) "If 
the princes (meaning those of Judah) hear that I have talked with 
thee, and they come unto thee and say unto thee, Declare unto us 
now what thou hast said unto the king ; hide it not from us, and We 
will not put thee to death ; and also what the king said unto thee; 
then thou shalt say unto them, I presented my supplication before 
the king ; that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan's 
house to die there. Then came all the princes unto Jeremiah, 
and asked him, and he told them according to all the ivords the king 
had commanded." Thus, the man of God, as he is called, could 
tell a lie, or very strongly prevaricate, when he supposed it would 
answer his purpose ; for certainly he did not go to Zedekiah to 
make his supplication, neither did he make it ; he went because he 
was sent for, and he employed that opportunity to advise Zedeki- 
ah to surrender himself to Nebuchadnezzar. 

In the -34th chapter, is a prophecy of Jeremiah to Zedekiah, in 
these words, (ver 2) "Thus saith the Lord, Behold I will give this 
city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with 
| fire ; and thou shalt not escape out of his hand, but that thou shalt 
I surely be taken, and delivered into his hand ; and thine eyes shall 

10* 



114 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with 
thee mouth to mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon. Yet hear the 
word of the Lord ; O Zedekiah, king of Judah, thus saith the Lord, 
Thou shalt not die by the sword, but thou shalt die in peace ; and 
with the burnings of thy fathers, the former kings that were before 
thee, so shall they burn odours for thee, and they will lament thee, say-> 
ing, J2Ji, Lord ; for 1 have pronounced the word, saith the Lord." : 

Now, instead of Zedekiah beholding the eyes of the king of 
Babylon, and speaking with him mouth to mouth, and dying in 
peace, and with the burning of odours, as at the funeral of his 
fathers (as Jeremiah had declared the Lord himself had pronounc- 
ed) the reverse, according to the 52d chapter, was the case ; it is 
there said, (ver. 10) "That the king of Babylon slew the sons of 
Zedekiah before his eyes : then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah, 
and bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon, and put 
him in prison till the day of his death." What then can we say 
of these prophets, but that they are impostors and liars ? 

As for Jeremiah, he experienced none of those evils. He was 
taken into favour by Nebuchadnezzar, who gave him in charge to 
the captain of the guard, (chap, xxxix. ver. 12) " Take him, 
(said he) and look well to him, and do him no harm ; but do un- 
to him even as he shall say unto thee." Jeremiah joined him- 
self afterwards to Nebuchadnezzar, and went about prophesying 
for him against the Egyptians, who had marched to the relief of 
Jerusalem while it was besieged. Thus much for another of the 
lying prophets, and the book that bears his name. 

I have been the more particular in treating of the books as- 
cribed to Isaiah and Jeremiah, because those two are spoken of 
in the books of Kings and of Chronicles, which the others are not. 
The remainder of the books ascribed to the men called prophets, 
L shall not trouble myself much about ; but take them collec- 
tively into the observations I shall offer on the character of the 
men styled prophets. 

In the former part of the Age of Reason, I have said that the 
word prophet was the Bible-word for poet, and that the flights 
and metaphors of the Jewish poets have been foolishly erected 
into what are now called prophecies. I am sufficiently justified 
in this opinion, not only because the books called the prophecies 
are written in poetical language, but because there is no word 
in the Bible, except it be the word prophet, that describes what 
we mean by a poet. I have also said, that the word signifies a 
performer upon musical instruments, of which T have given some 
instances ; such as that of a company of prophets prophesying 
with psalteries, with tabrets, with pipes, with harps, &c. and that 
Saul prophesied with them, 1 Sam. chap. x. ver. 5. It appears 
from this passage, and from other parts in the book of Samuel, 
that the word prophet was confined to signify poetry and music ; 
for the person who was supposed to have a visionary insight into 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



115 



concealed things, was not a prophet but a seer* (i Sam. chap, 
ix. ver. 9 ;) and it was not till after the word seer went out of use 
(which most probably was when Saul banished those he called 
wizards) that the profession of the seer, or the art of seeing, be- 
came incorporated into the word prophet. 

According to the modern meaning of the word prophet and 
prophesying, it signifies foretelling events to a great distance of 
time • and it became necessary to the inventors of the gospel to 
give it this latitude of meaning, in order to apply or to stretch 
what they call the prophecies of the Old Testament, to the times 
of the New ; but according to the Old Testament, the prophe- 
sying of the seer, and afterwards of the prophet, so far as the 
meaning of the word seer was incorporated into that of pro- 
phet, had reference only to things of the time then passing, or 
very closely connected with it ; such as the event of a battle 
, they were going to engage in, or of a journey, or of any enter- 
prise they were going to undertake, or of any circumstance then 
pending, or of any difficulty they were then in ; all of which 
had immediate reference to themselves (as in the case already 
mentioned of Ahaz and Isaiah with respect to the expression, 
Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son,) and not to any dis- 
tant future time. It was that kind of prophesying that corres- 
ponds to what we call fortune-telling ; such as casting nativities, 
predicting riches, fortunate or unfortunate marriages, conjuring 
for lost goods, &.c. ; and it is the fraud of the Christian church, 
not that of the Jews ; and the ignorance and the superstition of 
modern, not that of ancient times, that elevated those poetical — 
musical — conjuring — dreaming — stroling gentry, into the rank 
they have since had. 

But, besides this general character of all the prophets, they 
had also a particular character. They were in parties, and they 
prophesied for or against, according to the party they were with ; 
as the poetical and political writers of the present day write in 
defence of the party they associate with against the other. 

After the Jews were divided into two nations, that of Judah 
and that of Israel, each party had its prophets, who abused and 
accused each other of being false prophets, lying' prophets, im- 
postors, &c. 

The prophets of the party of Judah prophesied against the 
prophets of the party of Israel ; and those of the party of Israel 
against those of Judah. This party-prophesying showed itself 
immediately on the separation under the first two rival kings Re- 
hobo am and Jeroboam. The prophet that cursed, or prophesi- 
ed, against the altar that Jeroboam had built in Bethel, was of 
the party of Judah, where Itehoboam was king ; and he was 

* I know not what is the Hebrew word that corresponds to the word seer in Eng- 
lish ; but I observe it is translated into French by La Voyant, from the verb voir ti 
see j and which means the person who sees, or the seen 



116 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



way-laid, on his return home, by a prophet of the party of Israel, 
who said unto him, (1 Kings, chap, x.) u Jid thou the man of 
God that came from Judah ? and he said lam" Then the pro- 
phet of the party of Israel said to him, " I am a prophet also, as 
tJwu art, (signifying of Judah) and an angel spake unto me by the 
word of the Lord, sayings Bring him hack with thee unto thine house, 
that he may eat bread and drink water .: bid (says the 18th verse) 
he lied unto him." This event, however, according to the story, 
is, that the prophet 'of Judah never got back to Judah, for he 
was found dead on the road, by the contrivance of the prophet 
of Israel, who, no doubt, was called a true prophet by his own 
party, and the prophet of Judah a lying prophet. 

In the third chapter of the second of Kings, a story is related 
of prophesying or conjuring, that shows, in several particulars, 
the character of a prophet. Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and 
Joram, king of Israel, had for a while ceased their party animos- 
ity, and entered into an alliance ; and these two, together with 
the king of Edom, engaged in a war against the king of Moab. 
After uniting and marching their armies, the story says, they 
were in great distress for water, upon which Jehoshaphat said, 
" Is there not here a prophet of the Lord, that we may inquire of 
the Lord by him ? and one of the servants of the king of Israel 
said, here is Elisha. (Elisha was of the party of Judah.) And 
Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, said,, 'The word of the Lord is with 
him" The story then says, that these three kings went down 
to Elisha ; and when Elisha (who, as I have said, was a Judah- 
mite prophet) saw the king of Israel, he said unto him, " What 
have I to do with thee, get thee to the prophets of thy father and the 
prophets of thy mother. JYay but, said the king of Israel, the Lord 
hath called these three kings together, to deliver them into the hand 
of the king of Moab," (meaning because of the distress they were 
in for water ;) upon which Elisha said, " Jis the Lord of Iwsts liv- 
eth, before whom I stand, surely, were it not thai I regard Jehosha- 
phatj king of Judah, I woxdd not look towards thee, 'nor see thee. 
Here is all the venom and vulgarity of a party prophet. — We 
have now to see the performance, or manner of prophesying. 

Yer. 15. u Bring me, said Elisha, a minstrel : and it came to 
pass, wlien the minstrel played, that the hand of the Lord came upon 
him." Here is the farce of the conjuror. Now for the prophe- 
cy : " And Elisha said, (singing most probably to the tune he 
was playing) Thus saith tlie Lord, Make this valley full of ditches ;" 
which was just telling them what every countryman could have 
told them, without either fiddle or farce, that the way to get 
water was to dig for it. 

But as every conjuror is not famous alike for the same thing, 1 
so neither were those prophets ; for though all of them, at least 
those I have spoken of, were famous for lying, some of them ex- j 
celled in cursing. Elisha, whom I have just mentioned, was a 



THE AGE OF REASOtf. 



117 



chief in this branch of prophesying ; it was he that cursed the 
forty-two children in the name of the Lord, whom the two she- 
'bears came and devoured. We are to suppose that those chil- 
dren were of the party of Israel ; but as those who will curse 
will lie, there is just as much credit to be given to this story of 
Elisha's two she-bears as there is to that of the Dragon of Wan- 
tley, of whom it is said : — 

Poor children three devoured he. 
That could not with him grapple ; 
And at one sup he eat them up, 
As a man would eat an apple. 

There was another description of men called prophets, that amus- 
ed themselves with dreams and visions ; but whether by night 
or by day, we know not. These, if they were not quite harmless, 
were but little mischievous. Of this class are 

Ezekiel and Daniel ; and the first question upon those books, 
as upon all the others, is, are they genuine ? that is, were they 
written by Ezekiel and Daniel ? 

Of this there is no proof ; but so far as my own opinion goes, 
I am more inclined to believe they were, than that they were not. 
My reasons for this opinion are as follow : First, Becaue those 
books do not contain internal evidence to prove they were not 
written by Ezekiel and Daniel, as the books ascribed to Moses, 
Joshua, Samuel, &c. &,c. prove they were not written by Moses, 
Joshua, Samuel, &.c. 

Secondly, Because they were not written till after the Baby- 
lonish captivity began ; and there is good reason to believe, that 
not any book in the Bible was written before that period : at 
least, it is proveable, from the books themselves, as I have al- 
ready shown, that they were not written till after the commence- 
ment of the Jewish monarchy. 

Thirdly, Because the manner in which the books ascribed to 
Ezekiel and, Daniel are written, agrees with the condition 'these 
men were in at the time of writing them. 

Had the numerous commentators and priests, who have fool- 
ishly employed or wasted their time in pretending to expound 
and unriddle those books, been carried in captivity, as Ezekiel 
and Daniel were, it would have greatly improved their intellects, 
in comprehending the reason for this mode of writing, and have 
saved them the trouble of racking their invention, as they have 
done, to no purpose ; for they would have found that themselves 
would be obliged to write whatever they had to write> re- 
specting their own affairs, or those of their friends, or of their 
country, in "a concealed manner, as those men have done. 

These two books differ from all the rest ; for it is only these 
that are filled with accounts of dreams and visions ; and this dif- 



118 THE AGE OF REASON 

ference arose from the situation the writers were in as prisoners 
of war, or prisoners of state, in a foreign country, which obliged 
them to convey even the most trifling information to each other, 
and all their political projects or opinions, in obscure and met- 
aphorical terms. They pretend to have dreamed dreams, and 
seen visions, because it was unsafe for them to speak facts or. 
plain language. We ought, however, to suppose, that the per- 
sons to whom they wrote understood what they meant, and that 
it was not intended any body else should. But these busy com- 
mentators and priests have been puzzling their wits to find out 
what it was not intended they should know, and with which they 
have nothing to do. 

Ezekiel and Daniel were carried prisoners to Babylon, under 
the first captivity, in the time of Jehoiakim, nine years before the 
second captivity in the time of Zedekiah. The Jews were then 
still numerous, and had considerable force at Jerusalem ; and as 
it is natural to suppose that men, in the situation of Ezekiel and 
Daniel, would be meditating the recovery of their country, and 
their own deliverance, it is reasonable to suppose, that the ac- 
counts of dreams and visions, with which these books are filled, 
are no other than a disguised mode of correspondence, to facilitate \ 
those objects : it served them as a cypher, or secret alphabet. 
If they are not this, they are tales, reveries, and nonsense ; or at 
least, a fanciful way of wearing off the wearisomeness of captivi- 
ty ; but the presumption is, they were the former. 

Ezekiel begins his books by speaking of a vision of cherubims, , 
and of a wheel within a wheel, which he says he saw by the river 
Chebar, in the land of his captivity. Is it not reasonable to sup- ; 
pose, that by the cherubims he meant the temple at Jerusalem, 
where they had figures of cherubims ? and by a wheel within a 
wheel, (which, as a figure, has always been understood to signify 
political contrivance) the project or means of recovering Jerusa- 
lem ? In the latter part of this book, he supposes himself trans- 
ported to Jerusalem, and into the temple : and he refers back to the 
vision on the river Chebar, and says, (chap, xliii. ver. 3) that this 
last vision was like the vision on the river Chebar; which indi- 
cates, that those pretended dreams and visions had for their object i 
the recovery of Jerusalem, and nothing further. 

As to the romantic interpretations and applications, wild as the J 
dreams and visions they undertake to explain, which commentators 
and priests have made of those books, that of converting them 
into things which they call prophecies, and'making them bend to 
times and circumstances, as far remote even as the present day, it 
shows the fraud or the extreme folly to which credulity or priest- 
craft can go. 1 

Scarcely any thing can be more absurd, than to suppose that 
men situated as Ezekiel and Daniel were, whose country was 
over-run, and in the possession of the enemy, all their friends and 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



119 



relations in captivity abroad, or in slavery at home, or massacred, 
or in continual danger of it ; scarcely any thing, I say, can be 
more absurd, than to suppose that such men should find nothing 
to do but that of employing their time and their thoughts about 
what was to happen to other nations a thousand or two thousand 
years after they were dead ; at the same time, nothing is more 
natural, than that they should meditate the recovery of Jerusalem, 
and their own deliverance ; and that this was the sole object of 
all the obscure and apparently frantic writings contained in those 
books. 

In this sense, the- mode of writing used in those two books be- 
ing forced by necessity, and not adopted by choice, is not irration- 
al ; but if we are to use the books as prophecies, they are false. 
In the 29th chapter of Ezekiel, speaking of Egypt, it is said, (ver. 
11,) No foot of man should pass through it, nor foot of beast sJwuld 
pass through it ; neither shall it be inhabited for forty years" This 
is what never came to pass, and consequently it is false, as all the 
books I have already reviewed are. I here close this part of the 
subject. 

In the former part of the Age of Reason, I have spoken of Jo- 
nah, and of the story of him and the whale. A fit story for ridi- 
cule, if it was written to be believed ; or of laughter, if it was in- 
tended to try what credulity could swallow ; for if it could swallow 
Jonah and the whale, it could swallow any thing. 

But, as is already shown in the observations on the book of 
Job, and of Proverbs, it is not always certain which of the books 
in the Bible are originally Hebrew or only translations from the 
books of the Gentiles into Hebrew ; and as the book of Jonah, 
so far from treating of the affairs of the Jews, says nothing upon 
that subject, but treats altogether of the Gentiles, it is more 
probable that it is a book of the Gentiles than of the Jews ; and 
that it has been written as a fable, to expose the nonsense and sat- 
irise the vicious and malignant character of a Bible prophet, or a 
predicting priest. 

Jonah is represented, first, as a disobedient prophet,, running 
away from his mission, and taking shelter aboard a vessel of the 
Gentiles, bound from Joppa to Tarshish ; as if he ignorantly sup- 
posed, by such a paltry contrivance, he could hide himself where 
God could not find him. The vessel is overtaken by a storm at 
sea ; and the mariners, all of whom are Gentiles, believing it to 
be a judgment, on account of some one on board who had com- 
mitted a crime, agreed to cast lots, to discover the offender ; and 
the lot fell upon Jonah. But, before this, they had cast all their 
wares and merchandize overboard, to lighten the vessel, while 
Jonah, like a stupid fellow, was fast asleep in the hold. 

After the lot had designated Jonah to be the offender, they 
| questioned him to know who and what he was ; and he told them 
i he %vas an Hebrew ; and the story implies, that he confessed him- 



120 



THE AGE OF RE A SOX. 



self to be guilty. But these Gentiles, instead of sacrificing him 
at once, without pity or mercy, as a -company of Bible prophets 
or priests would have done by a Gentile in the same case, and as 
it is related Samuel had done by Agag, and Moses by the wo- 
men and children ; they endeavoured to save him, though at the 
risk of their own lives ; for the account says-, " Nevertheless, 
(that is, though Jonah was a Jew, and a foreigner, and the cause 
of all their misfortunes, and the loss of their cargo) the men row- 
ed hard to bring the boat to land ; but they could not, for the sea 
wrought, and was tempestuous against them Still, however, they 
were unwilling to put the fate of the lot into execution ; and they 
cried (says the account) unto the Lord, saying, " We beseech 
thee, O Lord, let us not perish for this mail's life, and lay hot upon 
us innocent blood ; for thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee" 
Meaning thereby, that they did not presume to judge Jonah guil- 
ty, since that he might be innocent ; but that they considered the 
lot that had fallen upon him as a decree of God, or as it pleased 
God. The address of this prayer shows that the Gentiles wor- 
shipped one Supreme Being, and that they were not idolaters, as 
the Jews represented them to be. But the storm still continuing, 
and the danger increasing, they put the fate of the lot into exe- 
cution, and cast Jonah into the sea ; where, according to the sto- 
ry, a great fish swallowed him up whole and alive. 

We have now to consider Jonah securely housed from the storm 
in the fish's belly. Here we are told that he prayed ; but the 
prayer is a made up prayer, taken from various parts of the 
Psalms, without any connection or consistency, and adapted to the 
distress, but not at all to the condition, that Jonah was in. It is 
such a prayer as a Gentile, who might know something of the 
Psglms, could copy out for him. This circumstance alone, were 
there no other, is sufficient to indicate that the whole is a made-up 
story. The prayer, however, is supposed to have answered the 
purpose, and the story goes on (taking up at the same time the 
cant language of a Bible prophet,) saying, " The Lord spake unto 
the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon dry land," 

J onah then received a second mission to Ninevah, with which 
he sets out ; and we have now to consider him as a preacher. The 
distress he is represented to have suffered, the remembrance of his 
own disobedience as the cause of it, and the miraculous escape he 
is supposed to have had, were sufficient, one would conceive, to 
have impressed him with sympathy and benevolence in the execu- 
tion of his mission ; but, instead of this, he enters the city with 
denunciation and malediction in his mouth, crying, u Yet forty days, 
and Ninevah shall be overthrown." 

We have now to consider this supposed missionary in the last ( 
act of his mission ; and here it is that the malevolent spirit of a 
Bible-prophet, or of a predicting priest, appears in all the black- 
ness of character, that men ascribe to the being they call the devil. 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



m 



Having puolished his predictions^ he withdrew, says the story, 
to the east side of the city. But for what ? not to contemplate, in 
retirement, the mercy of his Creator to himself, or to others, but 
to wait, with malignant impatience, the destruction of Ninevah. 
It came to pass, however, as the story relates, that the Nineyites 
reformed, and that God, according to the Bible phrase, repented 
him of the evil he had said he would do unto them, and did it not, 
This, saith the first verse of the last chapter, displeased Jonah ex- 
ceedingly, and he was very angry. His obdurate heart would rath- 
er that all Ninevah should be destroyed, and every soul, young 
and old, perish in its ruins, than that his prediction should not be 
fulfilled. To expose the character of a prophet still more, a 
gourd is made to grow up in the night, that promiseth him an 
agreeable shelter from the heat of the sun, in the place to whic'i 
he is retired ; and the next morning it dies. 

Here the rage of the prophet becomes excessive, and he is 
ready to destroy himself. "It is better, said he, for me to die than 
to live" This brings on a supposed expostulation between ihe 
Almighty and the prophet ; in which the former says, "Doest t kou 
well to he angry for the gourd ? Jind Jonah said, I do well tj be 
angry even unto death ; Then said the Lord, Thou hast had fly on 
the gourd, for which thou hast not laboured neither madc3t it to grow, 
which came up in a night, and. perished in a night ; and should not 
I spare JSinevah, that great city, in which are more than threescore 
thousand persons, that cannot discern between their right hand and 
their left ?" 

Here is both the winding up of the satire, and the moral of the 
fable. As a satire, it strikes against the character of all the Bible- 
prophets, and against all the indiscriminate judgments upon men, 
women, and children, with which this lying book, the Bible, is 
crowded ; such as Noah's flood, the destruction of the cities of 
Sodom and Gomorrah, the extirpation of the Canaanites, even to 
sucking infants, and women with child, because the same reflec- 
tion, that there are more than three-score thousand persons that can- 
not discern between their right hand and their left, meaning young 
children, applies to all their cases. It satirizes also the suppos- 
ed partiality of the Creator for one nation more than for another. 

As a moral, it preaches against the malevolent spirit of predic- 
tion ; for as certainly as a man predicts ill, he becomes inclined 
to wish it. The pride of having his judgment right, hardens his 
heart, till at last he beholds with satisfaction, or sees with disap- 
pointment, the accomplishment or the failure of his predictions 
This book ends with the same kind of strong and well-directed 
point against prophets, prophecies, and indiscriminate judgments, 
as the chapter that Benjamin Franklin made for the Bible, about 
•Abraham and the stranger, ends against the intolerant spirit of \e- 
ligious persecution. Thus much for the book of JonaH. 

Of the poetical parts of the Bible, that are called prophecies, I 
11 



122 



THE AGE OF REASON". 



have spoken in the former part of the Age of Reason, and already 
in this : where I have said that the word prophet is the Bible word 
for poet ; and that the nights and metaphors of those poets, many 
of which have become obscure by the lapse of time and the change 
of circumstances, have been ridiculously erected into things call- 
ed prophecies and applied to purposes the writers never thought 
of. When a priest quotes any of those passages, he unriddles it 
agreeably to his own views, and imposes that explanation upon 
his congregation as the meaning of the writer. The whore of 
Babylon has been the common whore of all the priests, and each 
has accused the other of keeping the strumpet ; so well do they 
agree in their explanations. 

There now remain only a few books, which they call the bookg 
of the lesser prophets ; and as I have already shown that the great- 
er are impostors, it would be cowardice to disturb the repose of 
the little ones Let them sleep then, in the arms of their nurses, 
the priests, and both be forgotten together. 

I have now gone through the Bible, as a man would go through 
a wood with an axe on his shoulder, and fell trees. Here they lie ; 
and the priests, if they can, may replant them. They may, per- 
haps, stick them in the ground, but they will never make them 
grow. — I pass on to the books of the New Testament. 

THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

The New Testament, they tell us, is founded upon the proph- 
ecies, of the Old ; if so, it must follow the fate of its foundation. 

As it is nothing extraordinary that a woman should be with child 
before she was married, a^d that the son she might bring forth 
should be executed, even unjustly ; I see no reason for not believ- 
ing that such a woman as Mary, and such a man as Joseph, and 
Jesus, existed ; their mere existence is a matter of indifference , 
about which there is no ground, either to believe, or to disbelieve, 
and which comes under the common head of, It may be so ; and 
what then ? The probability, however, is, that there were such 
persons, or at least such as resembled them in part of the circum- 
stances, because almost all romantic stories have been suggested 
by some actual circumstance ; as the adventures of Robinson 
Crusoe, not a word of which is true, were suggested by the case of 
Alexander Selkirk. 

It is not then the existence, or non-existence, of the persons 
that I trouble myself about ; it is the fable of Jesus Christ, as told 
in the New Testament, and the wild and visionary doctrine raised 
thereon, against which I contend. The story, taking it as it is 
told, is blasphemously obscene. It gives an account of a young 
woman engaged to be married, and while under this engagement, 
she is, to speak plain language, debauched by a ghost, under the 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



123 



impious pretence, (Luke, chap. i. ver. 35,) that cc iJie Holy Ghost 
shall come upon thee ; and the power of the Highest shall overshadow 
thee" Notwithstanding which, Joseph afterwards marries her, 
cohabits with her as his wife, and in his turn rivals the ghost. 
This is putting the story into intelligible language ; and when told 
in this manner, there is not a priest but must be ashamed to own 
it.* 

Obscenity in matters of faith, however wrapped up, is always a 
token of fable and imposture ;' for it is necessary to our serious be- 
lief in God, that we do not connect it with stories that run, as this 
does, into ludicrous interpretations. This story is, upon the face 
of it, the same kind of story as that of Jupiter and Leda, or Jupiter 
and Europa, or any of the amorous adventures of Jupiter ; and 
shows, as is already stated in the former part of the Jige of Reason^ 
that the Christian faith is built upon the heathen mythology. 
, As the historical parts of the New Testament, so far as concerns 
Jesus Christ, are confined to a very short space of time, less than 
two years, and all within the same country, and nearly to the same 
spot, the discordance of time, place, and circumstance, which de- 
tects the fallacy of the books of the Old Testament, and proves 
them to be impositions, cannot be expected to be found here in the 
same abundance. The New Testament, compared with the Old, 
is like a farce of one act, in which there is not room for very 
numerous violations of the unities. There are, however, some 
glaring contradictions, which, exclusive of the fallacy of the pre- 
tended prophecies, are sufficient to show the story of Jesus Christ 
to be false. 

I lay it down as a position which cannot be controverted, first, 
that the agreement of all the parts of a story does not prove that 
story to be true, because the parts mar agree, and the whole may 
be false ; secondly, that the disagreement of the parts of a story 
proves the whole cannot be true. The agreement does not prove 
truth, but the disagreement proves falsehood positively. 

The history of Jesus Christ is contained in the four books as- 
cribed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The first chapter of 
Matthew begins with giving a genealogy of Jesus Christ ; and la- 
the third chapter of Luke, there is also given a genealogy of Je- 
sus Christ. Did these two agree, it would not prove the geneal- 
ogy to be true, because it might, nevertheless, be a fabrication ; 
but as they contradict each other in every particular, it proves 
falsehood absolutely. If Matthew speaks truth,Luke speaks false- 
hood ; and if Luke speaks truth, Matthew speaks falsehood ; an/ 
as there is no authority for believing one more than the othe 
there is no authority for believing either ; and if they canr 
| be believed even in the very first thing they say, and set out 
| prove, they are not entitled to be believed in any thing they saj 

i * Mary, the supposed virgin mother of Jesus, had several other children., so' 
I daughters. See Mat. chap. xiii. ver. 55, 56. 



124 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



terwards. Truth is an uniform thing ; and as to inspiration and 
revelation, were we to admit it, it is impossible to suppose it can 
be contradictory. Either then the men called apostles were im- 
postors, or the books ascribed to them have been written by othei 
persons, and fathered upon them, as is the case in the Old Test 
anient. 

The book of Matthew gives, chap. i. ver. 6, a genealogy by 
name from David, up through Joseph, the husband of Mary, to 
Christ ; and makes there to be twenty-eight generations. The 
book of Luke gives also a genealogy by name from Christ, through 
Joseph, the husband of Mary, down to David, and makes there 
to be forty-three generations; besides which, there are on\f the 
two names of David and Joseph that are alike in the two lists. I 



here insert both geneological lists 


, and for the sake of perspicuity 


and comparison have placed them both in the same direction, that 


is, from Joseph down to David. 


* 


Genealogy , according toJuattheiv. 


(xenealogy, according to djuke 


Christ 


Christ 


2 Joseph 


2 Joseph 


3 Jacob 


tr% TT 1* 

3 Heh 


4 Matthan 


4 Mattnat 


o jEiieazer 


o .Lievi 


6 Eliud 


6 Melchi 


7 Achim 


7 J anna 


8 Sadoc 


8 Joseph 


9 Azor 


9 Mattathias 


10 Eliakim 


10 Amos 


11 Abiud 


11 Naum 


12 Zorobabel 


12 Esli 


13 Salathiel 


13 Nagge 


14 Jechonias 


14 Maath 


15 Josias 


15 Mattathias 


16 Amon 


16 Semei 


17 Manasses 


17 Joseph 


18 Ezekias 


18 Juda 


19 Achaz 


19 Joanna 


20 Joatham 


20 Rhesa 


21 Ozias 


21 Zorobabel 


22 Joram 


22 Salathiel 


23 Josaphat 


23 Neri 


24 Asa 


24 Melchi 


25 Abia 


25 Addi 


S6 Roboam 


26 Cosam 


27 Solomon 


27 Elmodam 


28 David* 


28 Er 



* From the birth of David to the birth of Christ is upwards of 1080 years : and a* 
the lifetime of Christ is not included, there are but 27 full generations* To find. 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



125 



Genealogy , according toMattheiv. 




Genealogy , according to Luke 

29 Jose 

30 Eliezer 

31 Jorim 

32 Matthat 

33 Levi 

34 Simeon 

35 Juda 

36 Joseph 

37 Jonan 

38 Elakim 

39 Melea 
40Menan 

41 Mattatha 

42 Nathan 

43 David 



Now, if these men, Matthew and Luke, set out with a falsehood 
between them, (as these two accounts show they do) in the very 
commencement of their history of Jesus Christ, and of whom, and 
of what he was, what authority (as I have before asked) is there 
left for believing the strange things they tell us afterwards ? If 
they cannot be believed in their account of his natural genealogy, 
how are we to believe them, when they tell us, he was the son of 
God, begotten by a ghost ; and that an angel announced this in 
secret to his mother ? If they lied in one genealogy, why are we 
to believe them in the other ? If his natural be manufactured, 
which it certainly is, why are not we to suppose, that his celestial 
genealogy is manufactured also ; and that the whole is fabulous ? 
Can any man of serious reflection hazard his future happiness 
upon the belief of a story naturally impossible ; repugnant to ev- 
ery idea of decency ; and related by persons already detected of 
falsehood Ms it not more safe, that we stop ourselves at the plain, 
pure, and unmixed belief of one God, which is deism, than that 
we commit ourselves on an ocean of improbable, irrational, inde- 
cent, and contradictory tales ? 

The first question, however, upon the books of the New Test- 
ament, as upon those of the Old, is, are they genuine ? Were they 
written by the persons to whom they are ascribed ? for it is upon 
this ground only, that the strange things related therein have been 
credited. Upon this point, there is no direct proof for or against; 

therefore, the average age of each person mentioned in the list, at the time his first 
son was born, it is only necessary to divide 1080 by 27, which gives 40 years for each 
person. As the life-time of man was then but of the same extent it is now, it is an 
absurdity to suppose, that 27 following generations should all be old bachelors, before 
they married ; and the more so, when we are told, that Solomon, the next in succes- 
sion to David, had a house full of wives and mistresses before he was 21 years of age. 
So far from this genealogy being a solemn truth, it is not even a reasonable lie. The 
list of Luke gives about 26 years for. the average age, and this is too much. 



126 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



and all that this state of a case proves, is doubtfulness ; and doubt- 
fulness is the opposite of belief. The state, therefore, that the 
books ai;e in, proves against themselves, as far as this kind of proof 
can go. 

But, exclusive of this, the presumption is, that the books call- 
ed the Evangelists, and ascribed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and 
John ; were not written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John ; 
and that they are impositions. The disordered sate of the histo- 
ry in these four books, the silence of one book upon matters relat- 
ed in the other, and the disagreement that is to be found among 
them, implies, that they are the production of some unconnected 
individuals, many years after the things they pretend to relate, 
each of whom made his own legend ; and not the writings of men 
living intimately together, as the men called apostles are suppos- 
ed to have done : in fine, that they have been manufactured, as 
the books of the old testament have been, by other persons than 
those whose names they bear. . . 

The story of the angel announcing, what the church calls, the 
immaculate conception, is not so much as mentioned in the books 
ascribed to Mark and John ; and is differently related in Matthew 
and Luke. The former says, the angel appeared to Joseph ; the 
latter says, it was to Mary ; but either, Joseph or Mary, was the 
worst evidence that could have been thought of ; for it was oth- 
ers that should have testified for them, and not they for themselves. 
Were any girl that is now with child to say, and even to swear it, 
that she was gotten with child by a ghost, and that an angel told 
her so, would she be believed ? Certainly she would not. Why 
then are we to believe the same thing of another girl whom we 
never saw, told by nobody knows who, nor when, nor where ? 
How strange and inconsistent is it, that the same circumstance 
that would weaken the belief even of a probable story, should be 
given as a motive for believing this one, that has upon the face of 
it every token of absolute impossibility and imposture. 

The story of Herod destroying all the children under two years 
old, belongs altogether to the book of Matthew : not one of the 
rest mentions any thing about it. Had such a circumstance been 
true, the universality of it must have made it known to all the 
writers ; and the thing would have been too striking to have been 
omitted by any. This writer tells us, that Jesus escaped this 
slaughter, because Joseph and Mary were warned by an angel to 
flee with him into Egypt ; but he forgot to make any provision for 
John, who was then under two years of age. John, however, 
who staid behind, fared as well as Jesus who fled ; and therefore 
the story circumstantially belies itself. 

Not any two of these writers agree in reciting, exactly in the 
same words, the written inscription, short as it is, which they tell 
us was put over Christ when he .was crucified : and besides this, 
Mark says, he was crucified at the third hour, (nine in the morn- 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



127 



ing ;) and John says, it was the sixth hour, (twelve at noon. # ) 
The inscription is thus stated in those books. 

Matthew — This is Jesus the King of the Jews. 

Mark — The king of the Jews. 

Luke This is the king of the Jews. 

John Jesus of Nazareth king of the Jews. 

We may infer from these circumstances, trivial as they are, 
, that those writers, whoever they were, and in whatever time they 
lived, were not present at the scene. The only one of the men, 
called apostlea, who appears to have been near the spot, was Pe- 
ter ; and when he was accused of being one of Jesus's followers, 
it is said, (Matthew, chap. xxvi. ver. 74,) " Then Peter began to 
curse OA\(i to swear , saying, 1 know not ike man yet we are now 
called upon to believe the same Peter, convicted, by their own ac- 
count, of perjury. For what reason, or on what authority shall 
we do this? 

The accounts that are given of the circumstances, that they 
tell us attended the crucifixion, are differently related in those 
four books. 

The book ascribed to Matthew says, " There ivas darkness over 
all the land from the sixth hour unto the ninth hour — that the veil of 
the temple ivas rent in twain from the top to the bottom — thai there 
tvas an earthquake — that the rocks rent — that the graves opened, 
that the bodies of many of the saints that slept arose and came out 
of their graves after the resurrection, and went into the holy city, and 
appeared unto many" Such is the account which this dashing 
writer of the book of Matthew gives ; but in which he is not sup- 
ported by the writers of the other books. 

The writer of the book ascribed to Mark, in detailing the cir- 
cumstances of the crucifixion, makes no mention of any earth- 
quake, nor of the rocks rending, nor of the graves opening, nor 
of the dead men walking out. The writer of the book of Luke 
is silent also upon the same points. And as to the writer of the 
book of John, though he details all the circumstances of the cru- 
cifixion down to the burial of Christ, he says nothing about ei- 
ther the darkness — the veil of the temple — the earthquake — -the 
rocks — the graves — nor the dead men. 

Now if it had been true, that those things had happened ; and 
if the writers of these books had lived at the time they did hap- 
pen, and had been the persons they are said to be, namely, the 
four men called apostles, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, it was 
not possible for them, as true historians, even without the aid of 
inspiration, not to have recorded them. The things, suppos- 
ing them to have been facts, were of too much notoriety not to 

* According to John, the sentence wasnotpassed till about the sixth hour, (noon), 
and consequently the execution could not be till the afternoon ; but Mark says express- 
ly, that he was crucified at the third hour, (nine in the morning), chap. xv. 25 ; John, 
chap. xix. ver. 14. 



128 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



have been known, and of too much importance not to have been 
told. All these supposed apostles must have been witnesses of 
the earthquake, if there had been any ; for it was not possible 
for them to have been absent from it ; the opening of the graves 
and the resurrection of the dead men, and their walking about 
the city, is of greater importance than the earthquake. An 
earthquake is always possible, and natural, and proves nothing ; 
but this opening of the graves is supernatural, and directly in 
point to their doctrine, their cause, and their apostleship. Had 
it been true, it would have filled up whole chapters of those books, 
and been the chosen theme and general chorus of all the writers ; 
but instead of this, little and trivial things, and mere prattling 
conversations of, he said this, and she said that, are often tedious- 
ly detailed, while this most important of all, had it been true, is 
passed off in a slovenly manner by a single dash of the pen, and 
that by one writer only, and not so much as hinted at by the 
rest. i 
It is an easy thing to tell a he, but it is difficult to support the 
lie after it is told. The writer of the book of Matthew should 
have told us who the saints were that came to life again, and 
went into the city, and what became of them afterwards, and who 
it was that saw them ; for he is not hardy enough to say he saw 
them himself ; whether they came out naked, and all in natural 
buff, he-saints and she-saints ; or whether they came full dress- 
ed, and where they got their dresses ; whether they went to their 
former habitations, and reclaimed their wives, their husbands, 
and their property, and how they were received ; whether they 
entered ejectments for the recovery of then* possessions, or 
brought actions of crim. con. against their rival interlopers ; 
whether they remained on earth, and followed their former oc- 
cupation of preaching or working ; or whether they died again, 
or went back to their graves alive, and buried themselves. , 
Strange indeed, that an army of saints should return to life, 
and nobody know who they were, nor who it was that saw them, 
and that not a word more should be said upon the subject, nor 
these saints have any thing to tell us ! Had it been the prophets, 
who (as we are told) had formerly prophecied of these things, tiieij 
must have had a great deal to say. They could have told us 
every thing, and we should have had posthumous prophecies, 
with notes and commentaries upon the first, a little better at least 
than we have now. Had it been Moses, and Aaron, and Joshua, 
and Samuel, and David, not an unconverted Jew had remained in 
all Jerusalem. Had it beeji John the Baptist, and the saints of 
the time then present, every body would have known them, and 
they would have out-preached and out-fanled all the other apos- 
tles. But instead of this, these saints are made to pop up, like 
Jonah's gourd in the night, for no purpose at all but to wither in 
the morning. Thus much for this part of the story. 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



129 



The tale of the resurrection follows that of the crucifixion ; and 
in this as well as in that/the writers, whoever they were, disagree 
so much, as to make it evident that none of them were there. 

The book of Matthew states, that when Christ was put in the 
sepulchre, the Jews applied to Pilate for a watch or a guard to 
be placed over the sepulchre, to prevent the body being stolen 
by the disciples ; and that in consequence of this request, the 
sepulchre was made save, sealing the stone that covered the mouth, 
and setting a watch. But the^ other books say nothing about 
this application, nor about the sealing, nor the guard, nor the 
watch ; and according to their accounts, there were none. 
Matthew, however, follows up this part of the story of the guard 
or the watch with a second part, that I shall notice in the con- 
clusion, as it serves to detect the fallacy of those books. 

The book of Matthew continues its account, and says, (chap, 
xxviii. ver. 1) that at the end of the Sabbath, as it began to 
dawn, towards the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene 
and the .other Mary, to see the sepulchre. Mark says it was 
sun-rising, and John says it was dark. Luke says it was Mary 
Magdalene and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and 
other women, that came to the sepulchre ; and John states, that 
Mary Magdalene came alone. So well do they agree about their 
first evidence ! they all, however, appear to have known most 
about Mary Magdalene ; she was a woman of large acquaintance, 
and it was not an ill conjecture that she might be upon the stroll. 

The book of Matthew goes on to say, (ver. 2,) " And behold 
there was a great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord descend- 
ed from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the 
door, and sat upon it." But the other books say nothing about 
any earthquake, nor about the angel rolling back the stone, and 
sitting upon it ; ' and according to their account, there was no 
angel sitting there. Mark says the angel was within the sepul- 
chre, sitting on the right side. Luke says there were two, and 
they were both standing up ; and John says they were both sit- 
ting down, one at the head and the other at the feet. 

Matthew says, that the angel that was sitting upon the stone 
on the outside of the sepulchre, told the two Marys that Christ 
was risen, and that the women went away quickly. Mark says, 
that the women, upon seeing the stone rolled away, and wonder- 
ing at it, went into the sepulchre, and that it was the angel that 
was sitting within on the right side, that told them so. Luke 
says, it was the two angels that were standing up ; and John 
says, it was Jesus Christ himself that told it to Mary Magdalene ; 
and that she did not go into the sepulchre, but only stooped down 
and looked in. 

Now, if the writers of these four books had gone into a court 
of justice to prove an alibi (for it is of the nature of an alibi that 
is here attempted to be proved, namely, the absence of a dead 



130 THE AGE OF REASON. 

body by supernatural means,) and had they given their evidence 
in the same contradictory manner as it is here given, they would 
have been in danger of having their ears cropt for perjury, and 
would have justly deserved it. Yet this is the evidence, and 
these are the books, that have been imposed upon the world, as 
being given by divine inspiration, and as the unchangeable word 
of God. 

The writer of the book of Matthew, after giving this account, 
relates a story that is not to be found in any of the other books, 
and which is the same I have just before alluded to. 

" Now, says he, (that is, after the conversation the wo- 
men had had with the angel sitting upon the stone,) behold some 
of the watch (meaning the watch that he had said had been plac- 
ed over the sepulchre) came into the city, and showed unto the 
chief priests all the things that were done ; and when they were 
assembled with the elders and had taken counsel, they gave large 
money unto the soldiers, saying, Say ye, that his disciples came 
by night, and stole him away while we slept ; and if this come to 
the governor's ears, we will persuade him, and secure you. So 
they took the money, and did as they were taught ; and this say- 
ing (that his disciples stole him away) is commonly reported 
among the Jews until this day." 

The expression, until this day, is an evidence that the book as- 
cribed to Matthew was not written by Matthew, and that it has 
been manufactured long after the times and things of which it 
pretends to treat ; for the expression implies a great length of 
intervening time. It would be inconsistent in us to speak in this 
manner of any thing happening in our own time. To give, 
therefore, intelligible meaning to the expression, we must sup- 
pose a lapse of some generations at least, for this manner of 
speaking carries the mind back to ancient time. 

The absurdity also of the story is worth noticing ; for it shows 
the writer of the book of Matthew to have been an exceedingly 
weak and foolish man. He tells a story, that contradicts itself 
in point of possibility ; for though the guard, if there were any, 
might be made to say that the body was taken away while they 
were asleep, and to give that as a reason for their not having 
prevented it, that same sleep must also have prevented their 
knowing how, and by whom it was done ; and yet they are made 
to say, that it was the disciples who did it. Were a man to ten- 
der his evidence of something that he should say was done, and 
of the manner of doing it, and of the person who did it while he 
was asleep, and could know nothing of the matter, such evidence 
could not be received : it will do well enough for Testament , 
evidence, but not for any thing where truth is concerned. 

I come now to that part of the evidence in those books, that 
respects the pretended appearance of Christ after this pretended 
resurrection, 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



131 



The writer of the book of Matthew relates, that the angel that 
was sitting on the stone at the mouth of the sepulchre, said to the 
two Marys, chap, xxviii. ver. 1 7 "Behold Christ is gone before 
you into Galilee, there ye shall see him ; lo, I have told you" And 
the same writer, at the two next verses (3,9,) makes Christ him- 
self to speak to the same purpose to these women, immediately 
after the angel had told it to them, and that they ran quickly to 
tell it to the disciples ; and at the 16th verse it is said, " Then 
the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where 
Jesus had appointed them ; and, when they saw him, they wor- 
shipped him. ' 

But the writer of the book of John tells us a story very differ- 
ent to this ; for he says, chap. xx. ver. 19, " Then the same day 
at evening, being the first day of the week, (that is, the same day 
that Christ is said to have risen,) when the doors were shut, where 
the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and 
stood in the midst of them" 

According to Matthew, the eleven were marching to Galilee, 
to meet Jesus in. a mountain, by his own appointment, at the very 
time when, according to John, they were assembled in another 
place, and that not by appointment but in secret, for fear of the 
Jews. 

The writer of the book of Luke contradicts that of Matthew 
more pointedly than John does ; for he says expressly, that the 
meeting was in Jerusalem the evening of the same day that he 
(Christ) rose, and that the eleven were there. See Luke, chap, 
xxiv. ver. 13, 33. 

Now, it is not possible, unless we admit these supposed disci- 
ples the right of wilful lying, that the writer of these books could 
be any of the eleven persons called disciples ; for if, according 
to Matthew, the eleven went into Galilee to meet Jesus in a 
mountain by his own appointment, on the same day that he is 
said to have risen, Luke and John must have been two of that 
eleven ; yet the writer of Luke says expressly, and John implies 
as much, that the meeting was, that same day, in a house in Je- 
rusalem ; and, on the other hand, if, according to Luke and John, 
the eleven were assembled in a house in Jerusalem, Matthew 
must have been one of that eleven ; yet Matthew says, the 
meeting was in a mountain in Galilee, and consequently the evi- 
dence given in those books destroys each other. 

The writer of the book of Mark says nothing about any meet- 
ing in Galilee ; but he says, chap. xvi. ver. 12, that Christ, after 
. his resurrection, appeared in another form to two of them, as 
I they walked into the country, and that these two told it to the- 
I residue, who would not believe them. Luke also tells a story, in 
| which he keeps Christ employed the whole of the day of this 
I pretended resurrection, until the evening, and which totally iu- 
| validates the account of going to the mountain in Galilee. He 



132 



THE AGE OF HE A SON, 



says, that two of them, without saying which two, went that same 
day to a village called Emmaus, threescore furlongs (seven miles 
and a half) from Jerusalem, and that Christ, in disguise, went 
with them, and staid with them unto the evening, and supped with 
them, and then vanished out of their sight, and re-appeared that 
same evening, at the meeting of the eleven in Jerusalem. 

This is the contradictory manner in which the evidence of this 
pretended re-appearance of (Christ is stated ; the only point in 
which the writers agree, is the skulking privacy of that re-ap- 
pearance ; for whether it was in the recess of a mountain in 
Galilee, or in a shut up house in J erusalem, it was still skulking. 
To what cause then are we to assign this skulking ? On the 
one hand, it is directly repugnant to the supposed or pretended 
end — that of convincing the world that Christ was risen ; and, 
on the other hand, to have asserted the publicity of it, would have 
oxposed the writers of those books to public detection, and there- 
fore they have been under the necessity of making it a private 
affair. 

As to the account of Christ being seen by more than five hun- 
dred at once, it is Paul only who says it, and not the five hundred 
who say it for themselves. It is, therefore, the testimony of but 
one man, and that too of a man, who did not, according to the 
same account, believe a word of the matter himself, at the time 
it is said to have happened. His evidence, supposing him to 
have been the writer of the 15th chapter of Corinthians, where 
this account is given, is like that of a man, who comes into a court 
of justice to swear, that what he had sworn before is false. A 
man may often see reason, and he has too always the right of 
changing his opinion ; but this liberty does not extend to matters 
of fact. 

I now come to the last scene, that of the ascension into heaven. 
Here all fear of the Jews, and of every thing else, must neces- 
sarily have been out of the question : it was that which, if true, 
was to seal the whole ; and upon which the reality of the future 
mission of the disciples was to rest for proof. Words, whether 
declarations or promises, that passed in private, either in the re- 
cess of a mountain in Galilee, or in a shut-up house in Jerusalem, 
even supposing them to have been spoken, could not be evidence 
^in public ; it was therefore necessary that this last scene should 
preclude the possibility of denial and dispute ; and that it should 
be, as I have stated in the former part of the Age of Reason, as 
public and as visible as the sun at noon day : at least it ought 
to have been as public as the crucifixion is reported to have 
been. But to come to the point. 

In the first place the writer of the book of Matthew does not 
say a syllable about it ; neither does the writer of the book of 
John. This being the case, is it possible to suppose that those 
writers, who affect to be even minute in other matters, would 



THE AGE: OF REASON. 



133 



have been silent upon this, had it been true ? The writer of the 
book of Mark passes it off in a careless, slovenly manner, with a 
single dash of the pen, as if he was tired of romancing, or asham- 
ed of the story. So also does the writer of Luke. And even 
between these two, there is not an apparent agreement, as to 
the place where this final parting is said to have been. 

The book of Mark says, that Christ appeared to the eleven as 
they sat at meat ; alluding to the meeting of the eleven at Je- 
rusalem : he then states the conversation that he says passed at 
that meeting ; and immediately after says (as a school-boy would 
finish a dull story) " So tlien, after the Lord had spoken unto 
them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand 
of God." But the writer of Luke says, that the ascension was 
from Bethany ; that he (Christ) led them out as far as Bethany , 
and was parted from them there, and was carried up into heaven. 
So also was Mahomet : and as to Moses, the apostle Jude says, 
ver. 9, That Michael and the devil disputed about his body. 
While we believe such fables as these, or either of them, we be- 
lieve unworthily of the Almighty. 

I have now gone through the examination of the four books 
ascribed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John ; and when it is 
considered that the whole space of time, from the crucifixion to 
what is called the ascension, is but a few days, apparently not 
more than three or four, and that all the circumstances are re- 
ported to have happened nearly about the same spot, Jerusalem ; 
it is, I believe impossible to find, in any story upon record, so 
many and such glaring absurdities, contradictions, and false- 
hoods, as are in those books. They are more numerous and 
striking than I had any expectation of finding, when I began 
this examination, and far more so than I had any idea of, when I 
wrote the former part of the Jige of Reason. I had then neither 
Bibie or Testament to refer to, nor could I procure any. My 
own situation, even as to existence, was becoming every day 
more precarious ; and as I was willing to leave something be- 
hind me upon the subject, I was obliged to be quick and concise 
The quotations I then made were from memory only, but they 
are correct ; and the opinions I have advanced in that work are 
the effect of the most clear and long established conviction — that 
the Bible and the Testament are impositions upon the world — 
that the fall of man — the account of Jesus Christ being the Son 
of God, and of his dying to appease the wrath of God, and of 
salvation by that strange means, are all fabulous inventions, dis- 
_ honourable to the wisdom and power of the Almighty — that the 
only true religion is Deism, by which I then meant, and now 
mean, the belief of one God, and an imitation of his moral char- 
acter, or the practice of what are called moral virtues — and that 
it was upon this only (so far as religion is concerned) that 1 



134 



THE AGE OF REASON 



rested all my hopes of happiness hereafter. So say I now — and 
so help me God. 

But to return to the subject. — Though it is impossible, at this 
distance of time, to ascertain as a fact who were the writers of 
those four books, (and this alone is sufficient to hold them in 
doubt, and where we doubt we do not believe) it is not difficult 
to ascertain negatively that they were not written by the persons 
to whom they <are ascribed. The contradictions in those books 
demonstrate two things : 

First, that the writers cannot have been eye-witnesses and 
ear-witnesses of the matters they relate, or they would have re- 
lated them without those contradictions ; and consequently that 
the books have not been written by the persons called apostles, 
who are supposed to have been witnesses of this kind. 

Secondly, that the writers, whoever they were, have not acted 
in concerted imposition, but each writer, separately and individu- 
ally for himself, and without the knowledge of the other. 

The same evidence that applies to prove the one, applies equal- 
ly to prove both cases ; that is, that the books were not written 
by the men called the apostles, and also that they are not a con- 
certed imposition. As to inspiration, it is altogether out of the 
question ; we may as welL attempt to unite truth and falsehood, 
as inspiration and contradiction. 

If four men are eye-witnesses and ear-witnesses to a scene, 
they will, without any concert between them, agree as to the 
time and place when and where that scene happened. Their 
individual knowledge of the thing, each one knowing it for him- 
self, renders concert totally unnecessary ; the one will not say 
it was in a mountain in the country, and the other at a house in 
town ; the one will not say it was at sun-rise, and the other that 
it was dark. For in whatever place it was, at whatever time it 
was, they know it equally alike. 

And, on the other hand, if four men concert a story, they will 
make their separate relations of that story agree, and corroborate 
with each other to support the whole. That concert supplies the* 
want of fact in the one case, as the knowledge of the fact super- 
cedes, in the other case, the necessity of a concert. The same 
contradictions, therefore, that prove there has been no concert, 
4>rove also that the reporters had no knowledge of the fact (or 
rather of that which they relate as a fact,) and detect also the 
falsehood of their reports. Those books, therefore, have neither 
been written by the men called apostles, nor by impostors in con- 
cert. How then have they been written ? 

I am not one of those who are fond of believing there is much 
of that which is called wilful lying, or lying originally ; except 
in the case of men setting up to be prophets, as in the Old Tes- 
tament : for prophesying is lying professionally. In almost all 
other cases, it is not difficult to discover the progress, by which 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



135 



even simple supposition, with the aid of credu^ty, will, in time, 
grow into a lie, and at last be told as a fact ; and whenever we 
can find a charitable reason for a thing of this kind, we ought 
not to indulge a severe one. 

The story of Jesus Christ appearing after he was dead, is the 
story of an apparition, such as timid imaginations can always cre- 
ate in vision, and credulity believe. Stories of this kind, had 
been told of the assassination of Julius Caesar, not many years 
before, and they generally have their origin in violent deaths, 
or in the execution of innocent persons. In cases of this kind, 
compassion lends its aid, and benevolently stretches the story. 
It goes on a little and a little farther, till it becomes a most cer- 
tain truth. Once start a ghost, and credulity fills up the history 
of its life, and assigns the cause of its appearance ! one tells it 
one way, another another way, till there are as many stories 
about the ghost and about the proprietor of the ghost, as there 
are about Jesus Christ in these four books. 

The story of the appearance of Jesus Christ is told with that 
strange mixture of the natural and impossible, that distinguishes 
legendary tale from fact. He is represented as suddenly coming 
in and going out when the doors are shut, and of vanishing out 
of sight, and appearing again, as one would conceive of an un- 
substantial vision ; then again he is hungry, sits down to meat, 
and eats his supper. But as those who tell stories of this kind, 
never provide for all the cases, so it is here : they have told us, 
that when he arose he left his grave clothes behind him ; but 
they have forgotten to provide other clothes for him to appear in 
afterwards, or tell to us what he did with them when he ascend- 
ed ; whether he stripped all off, or went up clothes and all. In 
the case of Elijah, they have been careful enough to make him 
throw down his mantle ; how it happened not to be burnt in the 
chariot of fire, they also have not told us. But as imagination 
supplies all deficiencies of this kind, we may suppose, if we please, 
that it was made of salamander's wool. 

Those who are not much acquainted with ecclesiastical histo- 
ry, may suppose that the book called the New Testament has 
existed ever since the time of Jesus Christ, as they suppose that 
the books ascribed to Moses have existed ever since the time of 
Moses. But the fact is historically otherwise ; there was no 
such book as the New Testament till more than three hundred 
years after the time that Christ is said to have lived. 

At what time the books ascribed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and 
John, began to appear, is altogether a matter of uncertainty. 
There is not the least shadow of evidence of who the persons were 
that wrote them, nor at what time they were written ; and they 
might as well have been called by the names of any of the other 
supposed apostles, as by the names they are now called. The 
originals are not in the possession of any Christian Church exist- 



136 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



ing, any more than the two tables of stone written on, they pre- 
tend, by the finger of God, upon mount Sinai, and given to Moses, 
are in the possession of the Jews. And even if they were, there 
is no possibility of proving the hand writing in either case. At 
the time those books were written there was no printing, and con- 
sequently there could be no publication, otherwise than by writ- 
ten copies, which any man might make or alter at pleasure, and 
call them originals. Can we suppose it is consistent with the wis- 
dom of the Almighty, to commit himself and his will to man, upon 
such precarious means as these, or that it is consistent we should 
pin our faith upon such uncertainties ? We cannot make nor alter, 
nor even imitate, so much as one blade of grass that he has made, 
and yet we can make or alter words of God as easily as words of 
man* 

About three hundred and fifty years after the time that Christ is 
said to have lived, several writings of the kind I am speaking of, 
were scattered in the hands of divers individuals 5 and as the 
church had begun to form itself into a hierarchy, or church govern- 
ment, with temporal powers, it set itself about collecting them into 
a code, as we now see them, called The New Testament. They 
decided by vote, as I have before said in the former part of the 
Jlge of Reason, which of those writings, out of the collection they 
had made, should be the word of God, and which should not. The 
Rabbins of the J ews had decided, by vote, upon the books of the 
Bible before. 

As the object of the church, as is the case in all national estab- 
lishments of churches, was power and revenue, and terror the 
means it used : it is consistent to suppose, that the most miracu- 
lous and wonderful of the writings they had collected stood the 
best chance of being voted. And as to the authenticity of the 
books, the vote stands in the place of it ; for it can be traced no 
higher. 

Disputes, however, ran high among the people then calling 
themselves Christians ; not only as to points of doctine, but as to 
the authenticity of the books. In the contest between the per- 
sons called St. Augustine and Fauste, about the year 400, the lat- 
ter says, "The books called the Evangelists have been composed 
long after the times of the apostles, by some obscure men, who, 
fearing that the world would not give credit to their relation of 

* The former part of the Age of Reason has not been published two years, and 
there is already an expression in it that is not mine. The expression is, The book 
of Luke was carried by a majority of one voice only. It may be true, but it is not 
I that have said it. Some person, who might know of the circumstance, has added it 
in a note at the bottom of the page in some of the editions, printed either in England 
or in America ; and the printers, after that, have erected it into the body of the work, 
and made me the author of it. If this has happened within such a short space of time, 
notwithstanding the aid of printing, which prevents the alteration of copies individu- 
ally; what may not have happened in much greater length of time, when there was no 
printing, and when any man who could write could make a written copy, and call it 
an original, by Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



137 



matters of which they could not be informed, have published them 
under the names of the apostles ; and which are so full of sottish- 
ness and discordant relations, that there is neither agreement nor 
connection between them." 

And in another place, addressing himself to the advocates of 
those books, as being the word of God, he says, u It is thus that 
your predecessors have inserted in the scriptures of our Lord, 
many things, which, though they carry his name, agree not with 
his doctrines. This is not surprising, since that we have often prov- 
ed that these things have not been written by himself, nor by his 
apostles, but that for the greatest part they are founded upon tales, 
upon vague reports, and put together by I know not what, half 
Jews, with but little agreement between them ; and which they 
' have nevertheless published under the names of the apostles of our 
| Lord, and have thus attributed to them their own errors and their 

The reader will see by these extracts, that the authenticity of 
the books of the New Testament was denied, and the books treat- 
ed as tales, forgeries, and lies, at the time they were voted to be 
the word of God. But the interest of the church, with the assist- 
ance of the faggot, bore down the opposition, and at last suppress- 
ed all investigation. Miracles followed upon miracles, if we will 
believe them, and men were taught to say they believed whether 
they believed or not. But (by way of throwing in a thought) the 
French Revolution has excommunicated the church from the pow- 
" er of working miracles : she has not been able, with the assistance 
of all her saints, to work one miracle since the revolution began ; 
and as she never stood in greater need than now, we may, without 
the aid of divination, conclude, that all her former miracles were 
tricks and lies.| 

* I have taken these two extracts from Boulanger's Life of Paul, written in French ; 
Boulanger has quoted them from the writings of Augustine against Fauste, to which 
he refers. 

| Boulanger, in his Life of Paul, has collected from the ecclesiastical histories, and 
the writings of the fathers, as they are called, several matters which show the opinions 
that prevailed among the different sects of Christians at the time the Testament, as we 
now see it, was voted to be the word of God. The following extracts are from the 
second chapter of that work. 

" The Marcionists, (*a Christian sect), assured that the evangelists were filled with 
falsities. The Manicheens, who formed a very numerous sect at the commencement 
of Christianity,, rejected as false, all the New Testament ; and showed other writ- 
ings quite different that they gave for authentic. The Corinthians, like the Marcion- 
ists, admitted not the Acts of the Apostles. The Encratites, and the Sevenians, adopt- 
ed neither the Acts nor the Epistles of Paul. Chrysostome, in a homily which he made 
upon the Acts of the Apostles, says, that in his time, about the year 400, many people 
| knew nothing either of the author or of the book. St. Irene, who lived before that 
time, reports that the Valentinians, like several other sects of the Christians, accused 
i the Scriptures of being filled with imperfections, errors, and contradictions. The 
! Ebionites or Nazarenes, who were the fir st Christians, rejected all the Epistles of Paul, 
' and regarded him as an impostor. They report, amon^ other tilings, that he was ori- 
ginally a Pagan, that he came to Jerusalem, where he lived some time ; and that hav- 
ing a mind to marry the daughter of the high priest, he caused himself to be circum- 



138 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



When we consider the lapse of more than three hundred years 
intervening between the time that Christ is said to have lived and 
the time the New Testament was formed into a book, we must see ? 
even without the assistance of historical evidence, the exceeding 
uncertainty the-re is of its authenticity. The authenticity of the 
book of Homer, so far as regards the authorship, is much better 
established than that of the New Testament, though Homer is a 
thousand years the most ancient. It was only an exceeding good 
poet that could have written the book of Homer, and therefore few 
men only could have attempted it ; and a man capable of doing it 
would not have thrown away his own fame by giving it to another 
In like manner, there were but few that could have composed Eu- 
clid's Elements, because none but an exceeding good geometrician 
could have been the author of that work. 

But with respect to the books of the New Testament, particular- 
ly such parts as tell us of the resurrection and ascension of Christ, 
any person who could tell a story of an apparition, or of a man's 
walking y could have made such books ; for the story is most wretch- 
edly told. The chance, therefore, of forgery in the Testament, is 
millions to one greater than in the case of Homer or Euclid. Of 
the numerous priests or parsons of the present day, bishops and all, 
every one of them can make a sermon, or translate a scrap of 
Latin, especially if it has been translated a thousand times before ; 
but is there any amongst them that can write poetry like Homer, 
or science like Euclid? The sum total of a parson's learning, with 
very few exceptions, is a b ab } and hie h&c, hoc; and their know- 
ledge of science is three times one is three ; and this is more 
than sufficient to have enabled them, had they lived at the time, to 
have written all the books of the New Testament. 

As the opportunities of forgery were greater, so also was the in- 
ducement. A man could gain no advantage by writing under the 
name of Homer or Euclid ; if he could write equal to them, it 
would bejbetter that he wrote under his own name ; if inferior, he 
could not succeed. Pride would prevent the former, and impossi- 
bility the latter. But with respect to such books as compose the 
New Testament, all the inducements were on the side of forgery. 
The best imagined history that could have been made, at the dis- 
tance of two or three hundred years after the time, could not have 1 
passed for an original under the name of the real writer ; the only 
chance of success lay in forgery, for the church wanted pretence 
for its new doctrine, and truth and talents were out of the ques- 
tion. 

But as it is not uncommon (as before observed) to relate stories 
of persons walking after they are dead, and of ghosts and appari- 
tions of such as have fallen by some violent or extraordinary 

r 

cised ; but that not being able to obtain her, he quarrelled with the Jews, and wrote 
against circumcision, and against the observation of the sabbath, and against all the 
legal ordinances." 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



139 



means ; and as the people of that day were in the habit of be- 
lieving such things, and of the appearance of angels, and also of 
devils, and of their getting into people's insides, and shaking them 
like a fit of an ague, and of their being cast out again as if by an 
emetic — (Mary Magdalene, the book of Mark tells us, had brought 
up, or been brought to bed of seven devils ;) it was nothing extra- 
ordinary that some story of this kind should get abroad of the 
person called Jesus Christ, and become afterwards the foundation 
of the four books ascribed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. 
Each writer told the tale as he heard it, or thereabouts, and gave 
to his book the name of the saint or the apostle whom tradition had 
given as the eye-witness. It is only upon this ground that the con- 
tradictions in those books can be accounted for ; and if this be not 
the ~case, they are downright impositions, lies, and forgeries, with- 
out even the apology of credulity. 

That they have been written by a sort of half Jews, as the fore- 
going quotations mention, is discernible enough. The frequent 
references made to that chief assassin and impostor Moses, and to 
the men called prophets, establishes this point ; and, on the other 
hand, the church has complimented the fraud, by admitting the 
Bible and the Testament to reply to each other. Between the 
Christian Jew and the Christian Gentile, the thing called a pro- 
phecy, and the thing prophesied ; the type, and the thing typified 
the sign and the thing signified, have been industriously rum- 
maged up, and fitted together like old locks and pick-lock keys. 
The story, foolishly enough told of Eve and the serpent, and nat- 
urally enough as to the enmity between men and serpents (for the 
serpent always bites about the heel, because it cannot reach high- 
er ; and the man always knocks the serpent about the head, as 
the most effectual way to prevent its biting ; # ) this foolish story, 
I say, has been made into a prophecy, a type, and a promise to 
begin with ; and the lying imposition of IsaiarrHo Ahaz, That a 
virgin shall conceive and bear a son, as a sign that Ahaz should 
conquer, when the event was that he was defeated (as already 
noticed in the observations on the book of Isaiah,) has been per- 
verted, and made to serve as a winder-up. 

Jonah and the whale are also made into a sign or a type. Jonah 
is Jesus, and the whale is the grave : for it is said, (and they have 
made Christ to say it of himself) Matt. chap. xvii. ver. 40, "For 
as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so 
shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of 
the earth." But it happens ankwardly enough that Christ, ac- 
cording to their own account, was but one day and two nights in 
the grave ; about 36 hours, instead of 72 ; that is, the Friday 
night, the Saturday, and the Saturday night ; for they say he was 
up on the Sunday morning by sun-rise, or before. But as this fits 

* " It sha.ll bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Gen. ch. iii. ver. 15. 



140 THE AGE OF REASON. 

quite as well as the bite and the kick in Genesis, or the virgin and 
her son in Isaiah, it will pass in the lump of orthodox things. 
Thus much for the historical part of the Testament and its evi- 
dences. 

Epistles of Paid— The epistles ascribed to Paul, being fourteen 
in number, almost fill up the remaining part of the Testament. 
Whether those epistles were written by the person to whom they 
are ascribed, is a matter of no great importance, since the writer, 
whoever he was, attempts to prove his doctrine by argument. He 
does not pretend to have been witness to any of the scenes told of 
the resurrection and the ascension ; and he declares that he had 
not believed them. 

The story of his being struck to the ground as he was journey- 
ing to Damascus, has nothing in it miraculous or extraordinary ; 
he escaped with his life, and that is more than many others have 
done, who have been struck with lightning ; and that he should 
loose his sight for three days, and be unable to eat or drink during 
that time, is nothing more than is common in such conditions. His 
companions that were with him appear not to have suffered in the 
same manner, for they were well enough to lead him the remain- 
der of the journey ; neither did they pretend to have seen any vi- 
sion. 

The character of the person called Paul, according to the ac- 
counts given of him, has in it a great deal of violence and fanati- 
cism ; he had persecuted with as much heat as he preached after- 
wards ; the stroke he had received had changed his thinking, with- 
out altering his constitution ; and, either as a Jew or a Christian, 
he was the same zealot. Such men are never good moral eviden- 
ces of any doctrine they preach. They are always in extremes, 
as well of action as of belief. 

The doctrine he sets out to prove by argument, is the resurrec- 
tion of the same body: and he advances this as an evidence of im- 
mortality. But so much will men differ in their manner of think- 
ing, and in the conclusions they draw from the same premises, that 
this doctrine of the resurrection of the same body, so far from be- 
ing an evidence of immortality, appears to me to furnish an evi- 
dence against it ; for if I had already died in this body, and am 
raised again in the same body in which I have died, it is presump- 
tive evidence that I shall die again. That resurrection no more 
secures me against the repetition of dying, than an ague fit, "when 
past, secures me against another. To believe, therefore, in im- 
mortality, I must have a more elevated idea than is contained in 
the gloomy doctrine of the resurrection. 

Besides, as a matter of choice, as well as of hope, I had rather 
have a better body and a more convenient form than the present. 
Every animal in the creation excels us in something. The wing- 
ed insects, without mentioning doves or eagles, can pass over more 
space and with greater ease, in a few minutes, than man can in an 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



141 



hour. The glide of the smallest fish, in proportion to its bulk, ex- 
ceeds us in motion, almost beyond comparison, and without weari- 
ness. Even the sluggish snail can ascend from the bottom of a 
dungeon, where a man, by the want of that ability, would perish; 
and a spider can launch itself from the top, as a playful amusement. 
The personal powers of man are so limited, and his heavy frame 
so little constructed to extensive enjoyment, that there is nothing 
to induce us to wish the opinion of Paul to be true. It is too little 
for the magnitude of the scene — too mean for the sublimity of the 
subject. 

But all other arguments apart ; the consciousness of eocistence 
is the only conceivable idea we can have of another life, and the 
continuance of that consciousness is immortality. The conscious- 
ness of existence, or the knowing that we exist, is not necessarily 
confined to the same form, nor to the same matter, even in this 
life. 

We have not in all cases the same form, nor in any case the same 
matter, that composed our bodies twenty or thirty years ago ; and 
yet we are conscious of being the same persons. Even legs and 
arms, which make up almost half the human frame, are not neces-_ 
sary to the consciousness of existence. These may be lost or 
taken away, and the full consciousness of existence remain ; and 
were their place supplied by wings or other appendages, we can- 
not conceive that it could alter our consciousness of existence. 
In short, we know not how much, or rather how little, of our com- 
position it is, and how exquisitely fine that little is, that creates in 
us this consciousness of existence ; and all beyond that is like the 
pulp of a peach, distinct and separate from the vegetative speck 
in the kernel. 

Who can say by what exceeding fine action of fine matter it is 
that a thought is produced in what we call the mind ? and yet that 
thought, when produced, as I now produce the thought I am writ- 
ing, is capable of becoming immortal, and is the only production 
of man that has that capacity. 

Statues of brass or marble will perish ; and statues made in im- 
itation of them are not the same statues, nor the same workman- 
ship, any more than the copy of a picture is the same picture. But 
print and reprint a thought a thousand times over, and that with 
materials of any kind — carve it in wood, or engrave it on stone, 
the thought is eternally and identically the same thought in every 
case. It has a capacity of unimpaired existence, unaffected by 
change of matter, and is essentially distinct, and of a nature differ- 
ent from every thing else that we know or can conceive. If then 
-he thing produced has in itself a capacity of being immortal, it is 
more than a token that the power that produced it, which is the 
self-same thing as consciousness of existence, can be immortal al- 
so ; and that as independently of the matter it was first connected 
with, as the thought is of the printing or writing it first appeared in. 



142 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



The one idea is not more difficult to believe than the other, and we 
can see that one is true. 

That the consciousness of existence is not dependent on the 
same form or the same matter, is demonstrated to our senses in the 
works of the creation, as far as our senses are capable of receiving 
that demonstration. A very numerous part of the animal creation 
preaches to us, far better than Paul, the belief of a life hereafter . 
Their little life resembles an earth and a heaven— a present and a 
future state : and comprises, if it maybe so expressed, immortal- 
ity in miniature. 

The most, beautiful parts of the creation to our eye are the 
winged insects, and they are not so originally. They acquire that 
form and that inimitable brilliancy by progressive changes. The 
slow and creeping caterpillar-worm of to-day, passes in a few days 
to a torpid figure, and a state resembling death ; and in the next* 
change comes forth in all the miniature magnificence of life a 
splendid butterfly. No resemblance of the former creature re- 
mains ; every thing is changed ; all his powers are new, and life 
is to him another thing. We cannot conceive that the conscious- 
ness of existence is not the same in this state of the animal- as be- 
fore ; why then must I believe that the resurrection of the same 
body is necessary to continue to me the consciousness of existence 
hereafter. 

In the former part of the Age of Reason, ! have called the cre- 
ation the only true and real word of God ; and this instance, of this 
text, in the book of creation, not only shows to us that this thing 
may be so, but that it is so ; and that the belief of a future state is 
a rational belief, founded upon facts visible in the creation : for it 
is not more difficult to believe that we shall exist hereafter in a 
better state and form than at present, than that a worm should be- 
come a butterfly, and quit the dunghill for the atmosphere, if we 
did not know it as a fact. 

As to the doubtful jargon ascribed to Paul in the 15th chapter 
of 1 Corinthians, which makes part of the burial service of some 
Christian sectaries, it is as destitute of meaning as the tolling of 
the bell at the funeral } it explains nothing to the understanding — 
it illustrates nothing to the imagination, but leaves the reader to 
find any meaning if he can. "All flesh (says he) is not the same 
flesh. There is one flesh of men ; another of beasts ; another of 
fishes; and another of birds." And what then? — nothing. A 
cook could have said as much. "There are also (says he) bodies 
celestial and bodies terrestrial ; the glory of the celestial is one, 
and the glory of the terrestrial is another." And what then? — 
nothing. And what is the difference? nothing that he has told. 
"There is (says he) one glory of the sun, and another glory of the 
moon, and another glory of the stars." And what then? — noth- 
ing ; except that he says that one star differeth from another star in 
glory, instead of distance ; and he might as well have told us, that 



TKE AGE OF REASON. 



143 



the moon did not shine so bright as the sun. All this is nothing 
better than the jargon of a conjuror, who picks up phrases he does 
1 1 not understand, to confound the credulous people who come to have 
1 their fortunes told. Priests and conjurors are of the same trade. 
! Sometimes Paul affects to be a naturalist, and to prove his sys- 
I tern of resurrection from the principles of vegetation. "Thou 
fool, (says he) that which thou sowest is not quickened except it 
die." To which one might reply in his own language, and say, 
Thou fool, Paul, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it 
die not; for the grain that dies in the ground never does, nor can 
1 vegetate. It is only the living grains that produce the next crop. 
But the metaphor, in any point of view, is no simile. It is suc- 
cession, and not resurrection. 

The progress of an animal from one state of being to another, 
) as from a worm to a butterfly, applies to the case ; but this of a 
J grain does not, and shows Paul to have been what he says of oth- 
1 ers, a fool. 

I Whether the fourteen epistles ascribed to Paul were written by 
him or not, is a matter of indifference : they are either argumenta- 
l tive or dogmatical; and as the argument is defective, and the dog- 
! . matical part is merely presumptive, it signifies not who wrote them. 
And the same may be said for the remaining parts of the Testa- 
ment. It is not upon the epistles, but upon what is called the gos- 
. pel, contained in the four books ascribed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, 
■ and J ohn, and upon the pretended prophecies, that the theory of 
! the church, calling itself the Christian church, is founded. The 
epistles are dependent upon those, and must follow their fate; for 
if the story of Jesus Christ be fabulous, all reasoning founded upon 
it as a supposed truth, must fall with it. 

We know from history, that one of the principal leaders of this 
church, Athanasius, lived at the time the New Testament was 
formed ;* and we know also, from the absurd jargon he has left 
us under the name of a oreed, the character of the men who 
formed the New Testament ; and we know also from the same 
history, that the authenticity of the books of which it is compos- 
ed was denied at the time. It was upon the vote of such as 
Athanasius, that the Testament was decreed to be the word of 
God ; and nothing can present to us a more strange idea than 
K that of decreeing the word of God by vote. Those who rest 
their faith upon such authority, put man in the place of God, and 
have no foundation for future happiness ; credulity, however, is 
not a crime ; but it becomes criminal by resisting conviction. It 
is strangling in the womb of the conscience the efforts it makes 
to ascertain truth. We should never force belief upon ourselves 
| in any thing. 

I here close the subject on the Old Testament and the New. 

* Athanasius died, according to the church chronology, in the year 371. 



144 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



The evidence I have produced to prove them forgeries, is ex- 
tracted from the books themselves, and acts, like a two edged 
sword, either way. If the evidence be denied, the authenticity 
of the scriptures is denied with it ; for it is scripture evidence : 
and if the evidence be admitted, the authenticity of the books is 
disproved. The contradictory impossibilities contained in the Old 
Testament and the New, put them in the case of a man who 
swears for and against. Either evidence convicts him of perjury, 
and equally destroys reputation. 

Should the Bible and Testament hereafter fall, it is not I that 
have been the occasion. I have done no more than extracted 
the evidence from the confused mass of mawa? with which it is 
mixed, and arranged that evidence in a point of light to be clear- 
ly seen and easily comprehended : and having done this, I leave 
the reader to judge for himself, as I have judged for myself. 

CONCLUSION. 

In the former part of the Age of Reason, I have spoken of the 
three frauds, mystery, miracle, and prophecy ; and as I have seen 
nothing in any of the answers to that work, that in the least af- 
fects what I have there said upon those subjects, I shall not en- 
cumber this Second Part with additions that are not necessary. 
. I have spoken also in the same work upon what is called reve- 
lation, and have shown the absurd misapplication of that term to 
the books of the Old Testament and the New ; for certainly rev- 
elation is out of the question in reciting any thing of which man 
has been the actor, or the witness. That which a man has done 
or seen, needs no revelation to tell him he has done it, or seen 
"t ; for he knows it already ; nor to enable him to tell it, or to 
Write it. It is ignorance, or^ imposition, to apply the term reve- 
lation in such cases ; yet the Bible and Testament are classed 
under this fraudulent description of being all revelation. 

Revelation then, so far as the term has relation between God 
and man, can only be applied to something which God reveals of 
his will to man ; but though the power of the Almighty to make 
such a communication, is necessarily admitted, because to that 
power all things are possible, yet, the thing so revealed (if any 
thing ever was revealed, and which, by the bye, it is impossible 
to prove) is revelation to the person only to whom it is made. His 
account of it to another is not revelation ; and whoever puts faith 
in that account, puts it in the man from w^ ~>m the account comes ; 
and that man may have been deceived, or may have dreamed it ; 
or he may be an impostor, and may lie. There is no possible 
criterion whereby to judge of the truth of what he tells ; for even 
the morality of it would be no proof ofrevelation. In all such cases, 
the prooer answer would be, " When it is revealed to me, I will 



THE AGE OP REASON. 



145 



believe it to be a revelation ; but it is not, and cannot be incumbent 

r\ me to believe it to be revelation before ; neither is it proper that I 
Id take the word of a man as the word of God y and put man in 
the place of God." This is the manner in which I have spoken of 
revelation in the former part of the Jlge of Reason ; and which, 
while it reverentially admits revelation as a possible thing, be- 
cause, as before said, to the Almighty all things are possible, it 
prevents the imposition of one man upon another, and precludes 
the wicked use of pretended revelation. 

But though, speaking for myself, I thus admit the possibility of 
revelation, I totally disbelieve that the Almighty ever did commu- 
nicate any thing to man, by any mode of speech, in any language, 
or by any kind of vision, or appearance, or by any means which 
our senses are capable of receiving, otherwise than by the uni- 
versal display of himself in the works of the creation, and by that 
repugnance we feel in ourselves to bad actions, and disposition 
to good ones. 

The most detestable wickedness, the most horrid cruelties, and 
the greatest miseries, that have afflicted the human race, have 
had their origin in this thing called revelation, or revealed re- 
| ligion. It has been the most dishonourable belief against the 
character of the Divinity, the most destructive to morality, and the 
peace and happiness of man, that ever was propagated since man 
began to exist. It is better, far better, that we admitted, if it 
were possible, a thousand devils to roam at large, and to preach 
publicly the doctrine of devils, if there were any such, than that 
we permitted one such impostor and monster as Moses, Joshua, 
Samuel, and the Bible prophets, to come with the pretended word 
of God in his mouth, and have credit among us. 

Whence arose all the horrid assassinations of whole nations of 
men, women, and infants, with which the Bible is filled ; and the 
bloody persecutions, and tortures unto death, and religious wars, 
that since that time have laid Europe in blood and ashes ; 
whence arose they, but from this impious thing called revealed 
religion, and this monstrous belief, that God has spoken to man ? 
The lies of the Bible have been the cause of the one, and the 
lies of the Testament of the other. 

Some Christians pretend, that Christianity was not established 
by the sword \ but of what period of time do they speak ? It 
was impossible that twelve men could begin with the sword ; 
they had not the power : but no sooner were the professors of 
Christianity sufficiently powerful to employ the sword, than they 
did so, anS the stake ar 1 the faggot too ; and Mahomet could 
■ not do it sooner. By the same spirit that Peter cut off the ear 
! of thcliigh priest's servant (if the story be true) he would have 
; cut off his head, and the head of his master, had he been able, 
j Besides this, Christianity grounds itself originally upon the Bi- 
; ble, and the Bible was established altogether by the sword, and 



146 



THE AGE OF REASOX. 



that in the worst use of it ; not to terrify, But to extirpate. The 
Jews made no converts ; they butchered- all. The Bible is the 
sire of the Testament, and both are called --the word of God. 
The Christians read both books ; the ministers preach from 
both books ; and this thing called Christianity is made up of 
both. It is then false to say that Christianity was not establish- 
ed by the sword. 

The only sect that has not persecuted are the Quakers ; and 
the only reason that can be given for it is, that they are rather 
Deists than Christians. They do not believe much about Jesus 
Christ, and they call the Scriptures a dead letter. Had they 
called them by a worse name, they had been nearer the truth. 

It is incumbent on every man who reverences the character of 
the Creator, and who wishes to lessen the catalogue of artificial 
miseries, and remove the cause that has sown persecutions thick 
among mankind, to expel all ideas of revealed religion as a dan- 
gerous heresy, and an impious fraud. What is it that we have 
learned from this pretended thing called revealed religion ? no- 
thing that is useful to man, and every thing that is dishonourable 
to his Maker. What is it the Bible teaches us ? — rapine, cruel- 
ty, and murder. What is it the Testament teaches us ? — to be- 
lieve that the Almighty committed debauchery with a woman, 
engaged to be married ! and the belief of this debauchery is call- 
ed faith. 

As to the fragments of morality that are irregularly and thinly 
scattered in those books, tney make no part of this pretended 
thing revealed religion. They are the natural dictates of con- 
science, and the bonds by which society is held together, and 
without which, it cannot exist ; and' are nearly the same in all 
religions, and in all societies. The Testament teaches nothing 
new upon this subject, and where it attempts to exceed, it be- 
comes mean and ridiculous. The doctrine of not retaliating in- 
juries, is much better expressed in proverbs, which is a collec- 
tion as well from the G-entiles as the Jews, than it is in the Tes- 
tament. It is there said, Proverbs xxv. ver. 21, " If thine enemy 
be hungry j give him bread to eat ; and if he be thirsty, give him 
water to drink but when it is said, as in the Testament, " If 

* According to what is called Christ's sermon on the mount, in the book of Matthew, 
where, among some other good tilings, a great deal of this feigned morality is intro- 
duced, it is there expressly said, that the doctrine of forbearance, or of not retaliating 
injuries, was not any part of the doctrine of the Jews ; but as this doctrine is 
founded in proverbs, it must, according to that statement, have been copied from the 
Gentiles, from whom Christ had learned it. Those men, whom Jewish* and Chris- 
tian idolators have abusively called heathens, had much better and clearer ideas of 
justice and morality than are to be found in the Old Testament, so far as it is Jewish ; 
or in the New. The answer of Solon on the question, "Which is the most perfect 
popular government," has never been exceeded by any man since his time, as con 
taining a maxim of political morality. " That," says he, " where the least injury 
done to the meanest individual, is considered as an insult on the whole constitu- 
tion." Solon lived about 500 years before Christ. 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



147 



u man smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also it 
is assassinating the dignity of forbearance, and sinking man into 
a spaniel. 

Loving enemies, is another dogma of feigned morality, and has 
besides no meaning. It is incumbent on man, afe a moralist, that 
he does not revenge an injury ; and it is equally as good in a 
political sense, for there is no end to retaliation, each retaliates 
on the other, and calls it justice ; but to love in proportion to the 
injury, if it could be done, would be to offer a premium for crime. 
Besides, the word enemies is too vague and general to be used 
in a moral maxim, which ought always to be clear and defined, 
like a proverb. If a man be the enemy of another from mistake 
and prejudice, as in the case of religious opinions, and sometimes 
in politics, that man is different to an enemy at heart with a crim- 
inal intention ; and it is incumbent upon us, and it contributes 
also to our tranquillity, that we put the best construction upon a 
thing that it will bear. But even this erroneous motive in him, 
makes no motive for love on the other part ; and to say that we 
can love voluntarily, and without a motive, is morally and phy- 
sically impossible. 

Morality is injured by prescribing to it duties, that, in the first 
place, are impossible to be performed ; and, if they could be, 
would be productive of evil ; or, as before said, be premiums for 
crime. The maxim of doing as ive mould he done unto, does not 
include this strange doctrine of loving enemies ; for no man ex- 
pects to be loved himself for his crime or for his enmity. 

Those who preach this doctrine of loving their enemies, are in 
general the greatest persecutors, and they act consistently by so 
doing ; for the doctrine is hypocritical, and it is natural that hy- 
pocrisy should act the reverse of what it preaches. For my own 
part, I disown the doctrine, and consider it as feigned or a fabulous 
morality ; yet the man does not exist that can say I have per- 
secuted him, or any man, or any set of men, either in the Ameri- 
can Revolution, or in the French Revolution ; or that I have, in 
any case, returned evil for evil. But it is not incumbent on man 
to reward a bad action with a good one, or to return good for 
evil ; and wherever it is done, it is a voluntary act, and not a 
duty. It is also absurd to suppose that such doctrine can make 
any part of a revealed religion. We imitate the moral charac- 
ter of the Creator by forbearing with each other, for he forbears 
with all ; but this doctrine would imply that he loved man, not 
in proportion as he was good, but as he was bad. 

If we consider the nature of our condition here, we must see 
there is no occasion for such a thing as revealed religion. What 
is it we want to know ? Does not the creation, the universe we 
behold, preach to us the existence of an Almighty power that 
governs and regulates the whole ? And is not the evidence that 
this creation holds out to our senses infinitely stronger than any 



143 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



thing we can read in a book, that any impostor might make and 
call the word of God ? As for morality, the knowledge of it ex- 
ists in every man's conscience. 

Here we are. The existence of an Almighty power is suffi- 
ciently demonstrated to us, though we cannot conceive, as it is 
impossible we should, the nature and manner of its existence. 
We cannot conceive how we came here ourselves, and yet we 
know for a fact that we are here. We must know, also, that the 
power that called us into being, can, if he please, and when he 
pleases, call us to account for the manner in which we have liv- 
ed here ; and, therefore, without seeking any other motive for 
the belief, it is rational to believe that he will, for we know be- 
fore-hand that he can. The probability, or even possibility of the 
thing is all that we ought to know ; for if we knew it as a fact, 
we should be the mere slaves of terror ; our belief would have 
no merit ; and our best actions no virtue. 

Deism then teaches us, without the possibility of being de- 
ceived, all that is necessary or proper to be known. The cre- 
ation is the Bible of the Deist. He there reads, in the hand- 
writing of the Creator himself, the certainty of his existence, and 
the immutability of his power, and all other Bibles and Testa- 
ments are to him forgeries. The probability that we may be 
called to account hereafter, will, to a reflecting mind, have 
the influence of belief ; for it is not our belief or disbelief that can 
make or unmake the fact. As this is the state we are in, and 
which it is proper we should be in, as free agents, it is the fool 
only, and not the philosopher, or even the prudent man, that 
would live as if there were no God. 

But the belief of a God is so weakened by being mixed with 
the strange fable of the Christian creed, and with the wild ad- 
ventures related in the Bible, and of the obscurity and obscene 
nonsense of the Testament, that the mind of man is bewildered 
as in a fog. Viewing all these things in a confused mass, he 
confounds fact with fable ; and as he cannot believe all, he feels 
a disposition to reject all. But the belief of a God is a belief 
distinct from all other things, and ought not to be confounded 
with any. The notion of a Trinity of Gods has enfeebled the 
belief of one God. A multiplication of beliefs acts as a division of 
belief ; and in proportion as any thing is divided it is weakened. 

Religion, by such means, becomes a thing of form, instead of 
fact ; of notion instead of principles ; morality is banished to 
make room for an imaginary thing, called faith, and this faith has 
its origin in a supposed debauchery ; a man is preached instead 
of God ; and execution is an object for gratitude ; the preachers 
daub themselves with the blood, like a troop of assassins, and pre- 
tend to admire the brilliancy it gives them ; they preach a hum- 
drum sermon on the merits of the execution ; then praise Jesus 
Christ for being executed, and condemn the Jews for doing it. 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



149 



A raan ? by hearing all this nonsense lumped and preached to- 
gether, confounds the God of creation with the imagined God of 
Christians, and lives as if there were none. 

Of all the systems of religion that ever were invented, there is 
none more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifying to man, 
more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory in itself, than 
this thing called Christianity. Too absurd for belief, too impos- 
sible to convince, and too inconsistent for practice, it renders the 
heart torpid, or produces only atheists and fanatics. As an en- 
gine of power, it serves the purpose of despotism ; and as a 
means of wealth, the avarice of priests ; but so far as respects 
the good of man in general, it leads to nothing here or hereafter. 

The only religion that has not been invented, and that has in 
it every evidence of divine originality, is pure and simple Deism. 
It must have been the first, and will probably be the last that man 
believes. But pure and simple Deism does not answer the pur- 
pose of despotic governments. They cannot lay hold of religion 
as an engine, but by mixing it with human inventions, and making 
their own authority a part ; neither does it answer the avarice of 
priests, but by incorporating themselves and their functions with 
it, and becoming, like the government, a party in the system. 
It is this that forms the otherwise mysterious connection of church 
and state ; the church humane, and the state tyrannic. 

Were man impressed as fully and as strongly as he ought to be, 
with the belief of a God, his moral life would be regulated by the 
force of that belief ; he would stand in awe of God, and of him- 
self, and would not do the thing that could not be concealed from 
either. To give this belief the full opportunity of force, it is 
necessary that it acts alone. This is Deism. 

But when 7 according to the Christian trinitarian scheme, one 
part of God is represented by a dying man, and another part called 
the Holy Ghost, by a flying pigeon, it is impossible that belief can 
attach itself to such wild conceits.* 

It has been the scheme of the Christian church, and of all the 
other invented systems of religion, to hold man in ignorance of 
the Creator, as it is of government to hold man in ignorance of his 
rights. The systems of the one are as false as those of the other, 
and are calculated for mutual support. The study of theology, 
as it stands in Christian churches, is the study of nothing ; it is 
founded on nothing ; it rests on no principles ; it proceeds by no 
authorities it has no data ; it can demonstrate nothing ; and it 
admits of no conclusion. Not any thing can be studied as a sci- 
ence, without our being in possession of the principles upon which 

* The book called the book of Matthew, says, ch. iii. ver. 16, that the Holy Ghost 
descended in the shape of a dove. It might as well have said a goose ; the creatures 
are equally harmless, and the one is as much a nonsensical lie as the other. The se- 
cond of Acts, ver. 2, 3, says, that it descended in a mighty rushing wind, in the shape 
of cloven tongues : perhaps it was cloven feet. Such absurd stuff is only fit for tales 
of witches and wizards. 



150 



THE AGE OF REASON". 



it is founded ; and as this is not the case with Christian theology, 
it is therefore the study of nothing. 

Instead then of studying theology, as is now done, out of the 
Bihle and Testament, the meanings of which books are always 
controverted, and the authenticity of which is disproved, it is ne- 
cessary that we refer to the Bible of the creation. The princi- 
ples we discover there are eternal, and of divine origin : they are 
the foundation of all the science that exists in the world, and must 
be the foundation of theology. 

We can know God only through his works. We cannot have 
a conception of any one attribute, but by following some principle 
that leads to it. We have only a confused idea of his power, if 
we have not tho means of comprehending something of its im- 
mensity. We can have no. idea of his wisdom, but by knowing 
the order and manner in which it acts. The principles of science 
lead to this knowledge ; for the Creator of man is the Creator of 
science, and it is through that medium that man can see God, as 
it were, face to face. 

Could a man be placed m a situation, and endowed with the 
power of vision, to behold at one view, and to contemplate delib- 
erately, the structure of the universe ; to mark the movements of 
the several planets, the cause of their varying appearances, the 
unerring order in which they revolve, even to the remotest comet ; 
their connections and dependence on each other, and to know the 
system of laws established by the Creator, that governs and reg- 
ulates the whole ; he would then conceive, far beyond what any 
church theology can teach him, the power, the wisdom, the vast- 
ness, the munificence of the Creator ; he would then see, that all 
the knowledge man has of science, and that all the mechanical 
arts by which he renders his situation comfortable here, are de- 
rived from that source : his mind, exalted by the scene, and con- 
vinced by the fact, would increase in gratitude as it increased in 
knowledge ; his religion or his worship would become united with 
his improvement as a man ; any employment he followed, that 
had connection with the principles of the creation, as every thing 
of agriculture, of science, and of the mechanical arts, has, would 
teach him more of God, and of the gratitude he owes to him, than 
any theological Christian sermon he now hears. Great objects 
inspire great thoughts ; great munificence excites great gratitude ; 
but the grovelling tales and doctrines of the Bible and the Testa- 
ment are fit only to excite contempt. 

Though man cannot arrive, at least in this life, at the actual 
scene I have described, he can demonstrate it ; because he has a 
knowledge of the principles upon which the creation is construct- 
ed. We know that the greatest works can be represented in 
model, and that the universe can be represented by the same 
means. The same principles by which we measure an inch, or 
an acre of ground, will measure to millions in extent. A circle 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



151 



of an inch diameter has the same geometrical properties as a cir- 
cle that would circumscribe the universe. The same properties 
of a triangle that will demonstrate upon paper the course of a 
ship, will do it^ on the ocean ; and when applied to what are call- 
ed the heavenly bodies, will ascertain to a minute the time of an 
eclipse, though these bodies are millions of miles distant from us. 
This knowledge is of divine origin ; and it is from the Bible of 
the creation that man has- learned it, andmot from the stupid Bi- 
ble of the church, that teacheth man nothing.* 

All the knowledge man has of science and of machinery, by the 
aid of which his existence is rendered comfortable upon earth, and 
without which he would be scarcely distinguishable in appearance 
and condition from a common animal, comes from the great ma- 
chine and structure of the universe. The constant and unweari- 
ed observations of our ancestors upon the movements and revolu- 
tions of the heavenly bodies, in what are supposed to have been 
the early ages of the world, have brought this knowledge upon 
earth. It is not Moses and the prophets, nor Jesus Christ, nor 
his apostles, that have done it. The Almighty is the great me- 
chanic of the creation ; the first philosopher and original teacher 
of all science : — Let us then learn to reverence our master, and 
not let us forget the labours of our ancestors. 

Had we at this day no knowledge of machinery, and were it 
possible that man could have a view, as I have before described, 
of the structure and machinery of the universe, he would soon con- 
ceive the idea of constructing some at least of the mechanical 
works we now have ; and the idea so conceived would progress- 
ively advance in practice. Or could a model of the universe, such 
as is called an orrery, be presented before him and put in motion, 
his mind would arrive at the same idea. Such an object and such 
a subject would, whilst it improved him in knowledge useful to 
himself as a man and a member of society, as well as entertain- 
ing, afford far better matter for impressing him with a knowledge 
of, and a belief in the Creator, and of the reverence and gratitude 
that man owes to him, than the stupid texts of the Bible and the 
Testament from which, be the talents of the preacher what they 

* The Bible-makers have undertaken to give us, in the first chapter of Genesis, an 
account of the creation ; and in doing this, they have demonstrated nothing but their 
ignorance. They'make there to have been three days and three nights, evenings and 
mornings, before there was a sun ; when it is the presence or absence of the sun that is' 
the cause of day and night — and what is called his rising and setting, that of morning 
and evening. Besides, it is a puerile and pitiful idea, to suppose the Almighty to say, 
"X,et there be light." It is the imperative manner of speaking that a conjuror uses, 
when he says to his cups and balls, Presto, be gone— and most probably has been taken 
from it, as Moses and his rod are a conjuror and his wand. Longinus calls this ex- 
pression the sublime; and by the -?aiue rule the conjuror is sublime too; for the man- 
ner of speaking is expressively and grammatically the same. When authors and crit 
ics talk of the sublime, they see not how nearly it borders on the ridiculous. The sub 
lime of the critics, like some parts of Edmund Burke's sublime and beautiful, is like a 
wind-mill just visible in a fog, which imagination might distort into a flying mountain, 
or an archangel, or a flock of wild geese. 



152 



THE AGE OP REASON. 



may, only stupid sermons can be preached. If man must preach, 
let him preach something that is edifying, and from texts that are 
known to be true. 

The Bible of the creation is inexhaustible in texts. Every part 
of science, whether connected with the geometry of the universe, 
with the systems of animal and vegetable life, or with the proper- 
ties of inanimate matter, is a text as well for devotion as for phi- 
losophy — for gratitude as for human improvement. It will, per- 
haps, be said, that if such a revolution in the system of religion 
takes place, every preacher ought to be a philosopher.— JWbs£ cer- 
tainly ; and every house of devotion a school of science. 

It has been by wandering from the immutable laws of science, 
and the right use of reason, and setting up an invented thing call- 
ed revealed religion, that so many wild and blasphemous conceits 
have been formed of the Almighty. The Jews have made him 
the assassin of the human species, to make room for the religion of 
the Jews. The Christians have made him the murderer of him- 
self, and the founder of a new religion, to supersede and expel the 
Jewish religion. And to find pretence and admission for these 
things, they must have supposed his power or his wisdom imper- 
fect, or his will changeable ; and the changeableness of the will 
is the imperfe.ction of the judgment. The philosopher knows that 
the laws of the Creator have never changed with respect either to 
the principles of science, or the properties of matter. Why then 
is it to be supposed they have changed with respect to man ? 

I here close the subject. I have shown in all the forgoing 
parts of this work, that the Bible and Testament are impositions 
and forgeries ; and I leave the evidence I have produced in proof 
of it to be refuted, if any one can do it : and I leave the ideas that 
are suggested in the conclusion of the work, to rest on the mind 
of the reader ; certain as I am, that when opinions are free, ei- 
ther in matters of government or religion, truth will finally and 
powerfully prevail 



ETfD OF THE AGE OF REASON SECOND PART. 



A 



BEING 

AN ANSWER TO A FRIEND, 

ON THE PUBLICATION OF 

THE AGE OF REASON. 



Pari*, May 12, 1797. 

IN your letter of the 20th of March, you give me several quo- 
tations from the Bible, which you call the word of God, to show 
me that my opinions on religion are wrong ; and I could give you 
as many, from the same book, to show that yours are not right ; 
consequently, then, the Bible decides nothing, because it decides 
any way, and every way, one chooses to make it. 

But, by what authority do you call the Bible the word of Godl 
for this is the first point to be settled. It is not your calling it so 
that makes it so, any more than the Mahometans calling the Koran 
the word of God makes the Koran to be so. The Popish Councils 
of Nice and Laodicea, about 350 years after the time that the per- 
son called Jesus Christ is said to have lived, voted the books, that 
now compose what is called the New Testament, to be the word 
of God. This was done by yeas and nays, as we now vote a law. 
The Pharisees of the second Temple, after the Jews returned 
from captivity in Babylon, did the same by the books that now 
compose the Old Testament, and this is all the authority there is, 
which to me is no authority at all. I am as capable of judging for 
myself as they wire, and I think more so, because, as they made a 
Irving by their religion, they had a self-interest in the vote they 
gave. 

Tou may have an opinion that a man is inspired, but you can- 
not prove it, nor you cannot have any proof of it yourself, because 
you cannot see into his mind in order to know how he comes by 
his thoughts, and the same is the case with the word revelation. — 
There can be no evidence of such a thing, for you can no more 
prove revelation, than you can prove what another man dreams of, 
neither can he prove it himself. 



154 LETTER TO A FRIEND. 

It is often said in the Bible that God spake unto Moses ; but 
how do you know that God spake unto Moses? Because, you will 
say, the Bible says so. The Koran says, that God spake unto 
Mahomet ; do you believe that too? No. Why not? Because, you 
will say, you do not believe it ; and so, because you do, and be- 
cause you don^t, is all the reason you can give for believing or dis- 
believing, except that you will say that Mahomet was an impostor. 
And how do you know that Moses was not an impostor? For my 
own part, I believe that all are impostors who pretend to hold ver- 
bal communication with the Deity. It is the way by which the 
world has been imposed upon ; but if you think otherwise you have 
the same right to your opinion that I have to mine, and must an- 
swer for it in the same manner. But all this does not settle the point, 
whether the Bible be the word of God, or not. It is therefore ne- 
cessary to go a step further. The case then is : — 

You form your opinion of God from the account given of him in 
the Bible ; and I form my opinion of the Bible from the wisdom 
and goodness of God, manifested in the structure of the universe, 
and in all the works of the Creation. The result in these two ca- 
ses will be, that you, by taking the Bible for your standard, will 
have a bad opinion of God ; and I, by taking God for my standard, 
shall have a bad opinion of the Bible. 

The Bible represents God to be a changeable, passionate, vin- 
dictive being : making a world, and then drowning it, afterwards 
repenting of what he had done, and promising not to do so again. 
Setting one nation to cut the throats of another, and stopping the 
course of the sun till the butchery should be -done. But the works 
of God in the creation preach to us another doctrine. In that vast 
volume we see nothing to give us the idea of a changeable, pas- 
sionate, vindictive God ; every thing we there behold impresses 
us with a contrary idea ; that of unchangeableness and of eternal 
order, harmony, and goodness. The sun and the seasons return 
at their appointed time, and every thing m the Creation proclaims 
chat God is unchangeable. Now, which am I to believe, a book 
that any impostor may make and call the word of God, or the Cre- 
ation itself, which none but an Almighty Power could make, for the 
Bible says one thing, and the Creation says the contrary. The 
Bible represents God with all the passions of a mortal, and the 
Creation proclaims him with all the attributes otfa God. 

It is from the Bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine, and 
murder ; for the belief of a cruel God makes a cruel man. That 
blood-thirsty man, called the prophet Samuel, makes God to say, 
(1 Sam. ch. xv. ver. 3,) "Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly 
destroy all that they have, and spare them not, but slay both man 
and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass" 

That Samuel, or some other impostor, might say this, is what, 
at this distance of time, can neither be proved nor disproved ; but 
in my opinion, it is blasphemy to say, or to believe, that God said 



LETTER TO A FRIEND. 



155 



It. All our ideas of the justice and goodness of God revolt at the 
impious cruelty of the Bible. It is not a God, just and good, but 
a devil, under the name of God, that the Bible describes. 

What makes this pretended order to destroy the Amalekites ap- 
pear the worse, is the reason given for it. The Amalekites, four 
hundred years before, according to the account in Exodous, chap. 
17, (but which has the appearance of fable from the magical ac- 
count it gives of Moses holding up his hands) had opposed the Is- 
raelites coming into their country ; and this the Amalekites had a 
right to do, because the Israelites were the invaders, as the Span- 
iards were the invaders of Mexico ; and this opposition by the A- 
rnalekites, at that time, is given as a reason, that the men, women, 
infants and sucklings, sheep and oxen, camels and asses, that were 
born four hundred years afterwards, should be put to death ; and 
to complete the horror, Samuel hewed Agag, the chief of the A- 
malekites in pieces, as you would hew a stick of wood. I will be- 
stow a few observations on this case. 

In the first place, nobody knows who the author, or writer of 
the book of Samuel was, and therefore the fact itself has no other 
proof than anonymous or hearsay evidence, which is no evidence 
at all. In the second place, this anonymous book says, that this 
slaughter was done by the express command of God : but all our 
ideas of the justice and goodness of God give the lie to the book, 
and I never will believe any book that ascribes cruelty and injus- 
tice to God. I therefore reject the Bible as unworthy of credit. 

As I have now given you my reasons for believing that the Bi- 
ble is not the word of God, and that it is a falsehood, I have a righ. 
to ask you your reasons for believing the contrary ; but I know 
you can give me none, except that you were educated to believe the 
Bible ; and as the Turks give the same reasons for believing the 
Koran, it is evident that education makes all the difference, and 
that reason and truth have nothing to do in the case. You believe 
in the Bible from the accident of birth, and the Turks believe in 
the Koran from the same accident, and each calls the other infi- 
del. — But leaving the prejudice of education out of the case, the 
unprejudiced truth is, that all are infidels who believe falsely of 
God, whether they draw their creed from the Bible, or from the 
Koran, from the Old Testament or from the New. 

When you have examined the Bible with the attention that I 
have done (for I do not think you know much about it) and permit 
yourself to have just ideas of God, you will most probably believe 
as I do. But I wish you to know that this answer to your letter is 
not written for the purpose of changing your opinion. It is written 
to satisfy you, and some other friends whom I esteem, that my 
disbelief of the Bible is founded on a pure and religious belief in 
God ; for in my opinion, the Bible is a gross libel against the jus- 
tice and goodness of God, in almost every part of it. 

THOMAS PAINE. 



LETTER 

TO THE HON. T. ERSKINE, 
ON THE PROSECUTION OF THOMAS WILLIAMS, 
w' ttmmunmm 

THE AGE OF REASON. 



INTRODUCTION. 



It is a matter of surprise to some people to see Mr. Erskine 
act as counsel for a crown prosecution commenced against the 
right of opinion : I confess it is none to me, notwithstanding all 
that Mr. Erskine has said before ; for it is difficult to know 
when a lawyer is to be believed 5 I have always observed that 
Mr. Erskine, when contending as a counsel for the right of po- 
litical opinion, frequently took occasions, and those often dragged 
in head and shoulders, to lard, what he called the British Con- 
stitution, with a great deal of praise. Yet the same Mr. Ersk- 
ine said to me in conversation, were Government to begin de 
novo in England, they never would establish such a damned ab- 
surdity (it was exactly his expression) as this is. Ought I then 
o be surprised at Mr. Erskine for inconsistency ? 

In this prosecution Mr. Erskine admits the right of controver- 
sy ; but says the Christian religion is not to be abused. This is 
somewhat sophistical, because, while he admits the right of con- 
troversy, he reserves the right of calling that controversy, abuse : 
and thus, lawyer-like, undoes by one word, what he says in the 
other. I will, however, in this letter keep within the limits he 
prescribes ; he will find here nothing about the Christian reli- 
gion : he will find only a statement of a few cases, which shows 
the necessity of examining the books, handed to us from the 
Jews, in order to discover if we have not been imposed upon ; 
together with some observations on the manner in which the trial 
of Williams has been conducted. If Mr. Erskine denies the 
right of examining those books, he had better profess himself at 
once an advocate for the establishment of an Inquisition, and the 
re-establishment of the Star Chamber. 

THOMAS PAINE. 



LETTER* &c. 



Of all the tyrannies that afflict mankind, tyranny in religion is 
the worst : Every other species of tyranny is limited to the 
world we live in ; but this attempts a stride beyond the grave, 
and seeks to pursue us into eternity. It is there and not here — 
it is to God and not to man — it is to a heavenly and not to an 
earthly tribunal that we are to account for our belief ; if then we 
believe falsely and dishonourably of the Creator, and that belief 
is forced upon us, as far as force can operate by human laws and 
human tribunals, — on whom is the criminality of that belief to 
fall ? on those who impose it, or on those on whom it is imposed ? 

A bookseller of the name of Williams, has been prosecuted in 
London on a charge of blasphemy, for publishing a book intitled 
the Age of Reason. Blasphemy is a word of* vast sound, but 
equivocal and almost indefinite signification, unless we confine 
it to the simple idea of hurting or injuring the reputation of any 
one, which was its original meaning. As a word, it existed be- 
fore Christianity existed, being a Greek word, or Greek anglofi- 
ed, as all the etymological dictionaries will show. 

But behold how various and contradictory has been the signi- 
fication and application of this equivocal word. Socrates, who 
lived more than four hundred years before the Christian era, 
was convicted of blasphemy, for preaching against the belief of a 
plurality of gods, and for preaching the belief of one god, and 
was condemed to suffer death by poison. Jesus Christ was con- 
victed of blasphemy under the Jewish law, and was crucified. 
Calling Mahomet an impostor would be blasphemy in Turkey ; 
and denying the infallibility of the Pope and the Church would 
be blasphemy at Rome. What then is to be understood by this 
word blasphemy ? We see that in the case of Socrates truth 
was condemed as blasphemy. Are we sure that truth is not 
blasphemy in the present day ? Wo, however, be to those who 
make it so, whoever they may be. 

r * Mr. Paine has evidently incorporated into this Letter a portion of Ms answer to 
Bishop Watson's " Apology for the Bible as in a subsequent chapter of that work, 
treating of the book of Genesis, he expressly refers to his remarks, in a preceding part 
of the same, on the two accounts of the creation contained in that book 5 which is in- 
cluded in this letter. 



162 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 



A book called the Bible has been Voted by men, and decreed 
by human laws to be the word of God ; and the disbelief of this 
is called blasphemy. But if the Bible be not the word of God, 
it is the laws and the execution of them that is blasphemy, and 
not the disbelief. Strange stories are told of the Creator in that 
book. He is represented as acting under the influence of every 
human passion, even of the most malignant kind. If these sto- 
ries are false, we err in believing them to be true, and ought 
not to believe them. It is therefore a duty which every man 
owes to himself, and reverentially to his Maker, to ascertain, by 
every possible inquiry, whether there be sufficient evidence to 
believe them or not. 

My own opinion is decidedly, that the evidence does not war- 
rant the belief, and that we sin in forcing that belief upon ourselves 
and upon others. In saying this, I have no other object in view 
than truth. But that I may not be accused of resting upon bare 
assertion with respect to the equivocal state of the Bible, I will 
produce an example, and I will not pick and cull the Bible for 
the purpose. I will go fairly to the case : I will take the two 
first chapters of Genesis as they stand, and show from thence the 
truth of what I say, that is, that the evidence does not warrant 
the belief that the Bible is the word of God. 



CHAPTER I. 

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 

2 And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was 
upon the face of the deep ; and the spirit of God moved upon the 
face of the waters. 

3 And God said, Let there be light ; and there was light. 

4 And God saw the light, that it was good ; and God divided < 
the light from the darkness. 

5 And God called the light day, and the darkness he called 
night : and the evening and the morning were the first day. 

6 TT And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of 
the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 

7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which 
were under the firmament, from the waters which were above 
the firmament : and it was so. 

8 And God called the firmament heaven ; and the evening and 
the morning were the second day. 

9 IT And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gather- 
ed together unto one place, and let the dry land appear : and it - 
was so. 

10 And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering toge- 
ther of the waters called he seas ; and God saw that it was good. 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 



163 



11 And 4jod said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb 
yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind, 
whose seed is in itself, upon the earth ; and it was so. 

12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed 
after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in it- 
self, after his kind : and God saw that it was good. 

13 And the evening and the morning were the third day. 

14 IT And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the 
heaven, to divide the day from the night : and let them be for 
signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years. 

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven, 
to give light upon the earth : and it was so. 

16 And God made two great lights ; the greater light to rule 
the day, and the lesser light to rule the night : he made the stars 
also. 

17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven, to give 
light upon the earth, 

18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide 
the light from the darkness ; and God saw that it was good. 

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. 

20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the 
moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the 
earth in the open firmament of heaven. 

21 And God created great whales, and every living creature 
that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after 
their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind ; and God saw 
that it was good. 

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, 
and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. 

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. 

24 IT And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living crea- 
ture after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the 
earth after his kind : and it was so. 

25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and 
cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the 
earth after his kind ; and God saw that it was good. 

26 IT And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our 
likeness : and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, 
and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the 
earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the 
earth. 

27 So God created man in his own image , in the image of God 
created he him : male and female created he them. 

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be- fruitful, 
and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it ; and have do- 
minion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over 
every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 



164 



LETTER TO MR. ERSEINE. 



29 TTAnd God said, Behold, I have given you every herb 
Dearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every 
tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed : to you it shall 
be for meat. 

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the 
air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein 
there is life, I have given every green herb for meat : and it 
was so. 

31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and behold it 
was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth 
day. 



CHAPTER II. 

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all, the 
host of them. 

2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had 
made, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which 
he had made. 

3 And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it : because 
that in it he had rested from all his work, which God created and 
made. , 

4 IT These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth, 
when they were created ; in the day that the Lord God made 
the earth and the heavens, 

5 And every plant of the field, before it was in the earth, and 
every herb of the field, before it grew ; for the Lord God had 
not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to 
till the ground. 

6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the 
whole face of the ground. 

7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, 
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; and man be- 
came a living soul. 

8 And the Lord God planted a garden eastward of Eden ; and 
there he put the man whom he had formed. 

9 And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every 
tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food ; the tree of 
life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of 
good and evil. 

10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden : and 
from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. 

1 1 The name of the first is Pison : that is it which compass- 
eth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 

12 And the gold of that land is good : there is bdellium and 
[he onyx-stone. 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 



165 



13 And the name of the second river is Gibon : the same is 
it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. 

14 And the name of the third river is Heddekel : that is it 
which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is 
Euphrates. 

15 And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the gar- 
den of Eden, to dress it and to keep it. 

16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every 
tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat : 

17 But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt 
not eat of it ; for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt 
surely die. 

18 IT And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man 
should be alone : I will make him an help meet for him. 

19 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast 
of the field, and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto 
Adam, to see what he would call them ; and whatsoever Adam 
called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 

20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the 
air, and to every beast of the field ; but for Adam there was not 
found an help meet for him. 

21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, 
and he slept ; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the 
flesh instead thereof. 

22 And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made 
he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 

23 And Adam said, this is now bone of my bone, and flesh of 
my flesh 5 she shall be called woman, because she was taken out 
of man. 

24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and 
shall cleave unto his wife ; and they shall be one flesh. 

25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were 
not ashamed. 



These two chapters are called the Mosaic account of the 
creation ; and we are told, nobody knows by whom, that Moses 
was instructed by God to write that account. 

It has happened that every nation of people has been world- 
makers ; and each makes the world to begin his own way, as if 
they had all been brought up, as Hudibras says, to the trade. 
There are hundreds of different opinions and traditions how the 
world began.* My business, however, in this place, is only with 
those two chapters. 

* In this world-making trade, man, of course, has held a conspicuous place ; and, 
for the gratification of the curious inquirer, the editor subjoins two specimens of the 
opinions of learned men, in regard to the manner of his formation, and of his subse- 
quent fall. The first he extracts from the Talmud, a work containing the Jewish 



166 



LETTER TO MR, ERSKINE. 



I begin then by saying, that those two chapters, instead of Con- 
taining, as has been believed, one continued account of the crea- 
tion, written by Moses, contain two different and contradictory 
stories of a creation, made by two different persons,~and written in 
two different styles of expression. The evidence-that shows this 
is so clear when attended to without prejudice, that, did we meet 
with the same evidence in any Arabic or Chinese account of a 
creation, we should not hesitate in pronouncing it a forgery. 

I proceed to distinguish the two stories from each other. 

The first story begins at the first verse of the first chapter, and 
ends at the end of the third verse of the second chapter ; for the 
adverbial conjunction, THUS, with which the second chapter be- 
gins (as the reader will see,) connects itself to the last verse of the 
first chapter, and those three verses belong to, and make the con- 
clusion of the first story. 

The second story begins at the fourth verse of the second chap- 
ter, and ends with that chapter. Those two stories have been 
confused into one, by cutting off the three last verses of the first 
story, and throwing them to the second chapter. 

I go now to show that those stories have been written by two 
different persons. 

traditions, the rabbinical constitutions, and explication of the law ; and is of great 
authority among the Jews. It was composed by certain learned rabbins, compre- 
hends twelve bulky folios, and forty years are said to have been consumed in its com- 
pilation. In fact, it is deemed to contain the whole body of divinity for the Jewish 
nation. Although the Scriptures tell us that the Lord God formed man of the 
dust of the ground, they do not explain the manner in which it was done, and these 
doctors supply the deficiency as follows : — 

" Adam's body was made of the earth of Babylon, his head of the land of Israel 
his other members of other parts of the world. R. Meir thought he was compact of 
the earth, gathered out of the whole earth ; as it is written, thine eyes did see my 
substance. Now it is elsewhere written, the eyes of the Lord are over all the 
earth. R. Aha expressly marks the twelve hours in which his various parts were 
formed. His stature was from one end of the world to the otner; and it was for his 
transgression that the Creator, laying his hand in anger on him, lessened him ; for 
before, says R. Eleazer, with his hand he reached the firmament. R. Jehuda thinks 
his sin was heresy ; but R. Isaac thinks it was nourishing his foreskin." 

The Mahometan savans give the following account of the same transaction : 

" When God wished to create man he sent the angel Gabriel to take a handful of 
each of the seven beds which composed the earth. But when the latter heard the or- 
der of God, she felt much alarmed, and requested the heavenly messenger to represent 
to God, that as the creature he was about to form might chance to rebel one day 
against him, this would be the means of bringing upon herself the divine malediction. 
God, however, far from listening to this request, despatched two other angels, Michael 
and Azrael, to execute his will ; but they, moved with compassion, were prevailed 
upon again to lay the complaints of the earth at the feet of her author. Then God 
confined the execution of his commands to the formidable Azrael al*one, who, regard- 
less of all the earth might say, violently tore from her bosom seven handfuls from her 
various strata, and carried them into Arabia, where the work of creation was to be 
completed. As to Azrael, God was so well pleased with the decisive manner in 
which he had acted, that he gave him the office of separating the soul from the body, 
whence he is called the Angel of Death. 

Meanwhile, the angels having kneaded this earth, God moulded it with his own 
hands, and left it some time that it might get dry. The angels delighted to gaze upon 
the lifeless, but beautiful mass, with the exception of Eblis, or Lucifer, who, bent upon 
evil, struck it upon the stomach, which giving a hollow sound, he said, since this 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 



167 



From the first verse of the first chapter to the ena of the 3d 
verse of the second chapter, which makes the whole of the first 
story, the word GrOD is used without any epithet or additional 
word conjoined with it, as the reader will see : and this style of 
expression is invariably used throughout the whole of this story, 
and is repeated no less than thirty-five times, viz. "In the begin- 
ning God created the heavens and the earth, and the spirit of God 
moved on the face cf the waters, and God said, let there be light, 
and Gjd saw the light, Slc. &c. 

But immediately from the beginning of the fourth verse of the 
second chapter, where the second story begins, the style of ex- 
pression is always the Lord God, and this style of expression is 
invariably used to the end of the chapter, and is repeated eleven 
times ; in the one it is always God, and never the Lord God ; 
in the other it is always the Lord God, and never God. — The 
first story contains thirty -four verses, and repeats the single word 
God thirty-five times. The second story contains twenty-two 
verses, and repeats the compound word Lord- God eleven times ; 
this difference of style, so often repeated, and so uniformly con- 
tinued, shows, that those two chapters, containing two different 
stories, are written by different persons : it is the same in all the 
different editions of the Bible, in all the languages I have seen. 

Having thus shown, from the difference of style, that those two 
chapters divided, as they properly divide themselves, at the end 
of the third verse of the second chapter, are the work of two dif- 

creature will be hollow, it will often need being filled, and will be, therefore, exposed 
to pregnant temptations. Upon this, he asked the angels how they would act if God 
wished to render them dependent upon this sovereign which he was about to give to 
the earth. They readily answered that they would obey ; but although Eblis did 
not openly dissent, he resolved within himself that he would not follow their example. 

After the body of the first man had been properly prepared, God animated it with 
an intelligent soul, and clad him in splendid and marvellous garments, suited to the 
dignity of this favoured being. He now commanded his angels to fall prostrate be- 
fore Adam. All of them obeyed, with the exception of Eblis, who was in conse- 
quence immediately expelled from heaven, and his place given to Adam. 

The formation of Eve from one of the ribs of the first man, is the same as that re- 
corded in the Bible, as is -also the order given to the father of mankind, not to taste 
the fruit of a particular tree. Eblis seized this opportunity of revenge. Having asso- 
ciated the peacock and the serpent in the enterprize, they by their wily speeches at 
length persuaded Adam to become guilty of disobedience. But no sooner had they 
touched the forbidden fruit, than their garments dropped on the ground, and the sight 
of their nakedness covered them both with shame and with confusion. They made a 
covering for their body with fig leaves ; but they were both immediately condemned to 
labour, and to die, and hurled down from Paradise. 

Adam fell upon the mountain of Sarendip, in the island of Ceylon, where a moun-- 
tain is called by his name to the present day. Eve being separated from her spouse 
in her fail, alighted on the spot where China now stands, and Eblis fell not far from 
the same spot. As to the peacock and the snake, the former dropped in Hindostan, 
and the latter in Arabia. Adam soon feeling the enormity of his fault, implored the 
mercy of God, who relenting, sent down his angels from heaven with a tabernacle, 
which they placed on the spot where Abraham, at a subsequent period, built the tem- 
ple of Mecca. Gabriel instructed him in the rites and ceremonies performed about 
the sanctuary, in order that he might obtain the forgiveness of his offence, and after- 
wards led him to the mountain of Ararat, where be met Eve, from whom he had been 
now separated above two hundred years. 



168 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 



ferent persons, I come to show, from the contradictory matters 
they contain, that they cannot be the work of one person, and are 
two different stories. 

It is impossible, unless the writer was a lunatic, without mem- 
ory, that one and the same person could say, as is said in the 27th 
and 28th verses of the first chapter — 66 So God created man in his 
own image, in the image of God created he him ; male and female 
created he them : and God blessed them, and God said unto them, 
be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and 
have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, 
and every living thing that moveth on the face of the earth." It is, I 
say, impossible that the same person, who said this, could after- 
wards say, as is said in the second chapter, ver. 5, and there was 
not a man to till the ground ; and then proceed in the 7th verse to 
give another account of the making a man for the first time, and 
afterwards of the making a woman out of his rib. 

Again, one and the same person could not write, as is written 
in the 29th verse of the first chapter ; "Behold I (God) have giv- 
en you every herb bearing seed, which is on the face of the earth; 
and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree bearing seed, to you 
it shall be for meat," and afterwards say, as is said in the second 
chapter, that the Lord-God planted a tree in the midst of a gar- 
den, and forbad man to eat thereof. 

Again, one and the same person could not say, " Thus the heav- 
ens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them, and on the 
seventh day God ended his ivork which he had made;" and shortly 
after set the Creator to work again, to plant a garden, to make a 
man and a woman, &c. as is done in the second chapter. 

Here are evidently two different stories contradicting each 
other. — According to the first, the two sexes, the male and the 
female, mere made at the same time. According to the second, 
they were made at different times; the man first, the woman af- 
terwards. — According to the first story, they were to have domin- 
ion over all the earth. According to the second, their dominion 
was limited to a garden. How large a garden it could be, that 
one man and one woman could dress and keep in order, I leave 
to the prosecutor, the judge, the jury, and Mr. Erskine to de- 
termine. 

The story of the talking serpent, and its tete-a-tete with Eve : 
the doleful adventure, called the Fall of Man: and how he was 
turned out of this fine garden, and how the garden was afterwards 
locked up and guarded by a flaming sword (if any one can tell 
what a flaming sword is,) belong altogether to the second story. 
They have no connection with the first story. According to the 
first there was no garden of Eden ; no forbidden tree: the scene 
was the whole earth, and the fruit of all the trees was allowed to be 
eaten. 

In giving this example of the strange state of the Bible, it can- 



LETTER TO Mil. ERSKINE, 



not be said I have gone out of my way to seek it, for I have tak- 
en the beginning of the book ; nor can it be said I have made 
more of it, than it makes of itself. That there are two stories is 
as visible to the eye, when attended to, as that there are two chap- 
ters, and that they have been written by different persons, nobody 
knows by whom. If this, then, is the strange condition the be- 
ginning of the Bible is in, it leads to a just suspicion, that the oth- 
er parts are no better, and consequently it becomes ever^ man's 
duty to examine the case. I have done it for myself, and am sat- 
isfied that the Bible is fabulous. 

Perhaps I shall be told in the cant-language of the day, as I 
have often been told by the Bishop of Llandaff and others, of the 
great and laudable pains, that many pious and learned men have 
taken to explain the obscure, mofi reconcile the contradictory, or 
as they say, the seemingly contradictory passages of the Bible. It 
is because the Bible needs such an undertaking, that is one of the 
first causes to suspect it is not the word of God : this single re- 
flection, when carried home to the mind, is in itself a volume. 

What ! does not the Creator of the Universe, the Fountain of 
all Wisdom, the Origin of all Science, the Author of all Know- 
ledge, the God of Order and of Harmony, know how to write ? 
When we contemplate the vast economy of the creation ; when 
we behold the unerring regularity of the visible solar system, the 
perfection with which all its several parts revolve, and by corres- 
ponding assemblage, form a whole ; — when we launch our eye in- 
to the boundless ocean of space, and see ourselves surrounded by 
innumerable worlds, not one of which varies from its appointed 
place — when we trace the power of a Creator, from a mite to an 
elephant — from an atom to an universe — can we suppose that the 
mind that could conceive such a design, and the power that exe- 
cuted it with incomparable perfection, cannot write without incon- 
sistency ; or that a book so written can be the work of such a 
power? The writings of Thomas Paine, even of Thomas Paine, 
need no commentator to explain, expound, arrange, and re-arrange 
their several parts, to render them intelligible — he can relate a 
fact, or write an essay, without forge+ting in one page what he has 
written in another — certainly then, did the God of all perfection 
condescend to write or dictate a book, that book would be as per- 
fect as himself is perfect : the Bible is not so, and it is confess- 
edly not so, by the attempts to amend it. 

Perhaps I shall be told, that though I have produced one in- 
stance, I cannot produce another of equal force. One is suffi- 
cient to call in question the genuineness or authenticity of any 
book that pretends to be the word of God ; for such a book would, 
as before said, be as perfect as its author is perfect. 

I will, however, advance only four chapters further into the 
book of Genesis, and produce another example that is sufficient 
to invalidate the story to which it belongs 
15 



170 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 



We have all heard of Noah's Flood ; and it is impossible to vhink 
of the whole human race, men, women, children, and infants (ex- 
cept one family) deliberately drowning, without feeling a painful 
sensation ; that heart must be a heart of flint that can contemplate 
such a scene with. tranquillity. There is ^ .thing in the ancient 
mythology, nor in the religion of any people we know of upon 
the globe, that records a sentence of their God, or of their Gods, 
so tremendously severe and merciless. If Che story be not true, 
we blasphemously dishonour God by believing it, and still more 
so, in forcing, by laws and penalties, that belief upon others. I 
go now to show from the face of the story, that it carries the evi- 
dence of not being true. 

I know not if the judge, the j^ry, and Mr. Erskine, who tried 
and convicted Williams, ever read the Bible, or know any thing 
of its contents, and therefore I will state the case precisely. 

There were no such people as Jews or Israelites, in the time 
that Noah is said to have lived, and consequently there was no 
such law as that which is called the Jewish or Mosaic Law. It 
is, according to the Bible, more than six hundred years from the 
time the flood is said to have happened, to the time of Moses, 
consequently the time the flood is said to have happened, was in e 
than six hundred years prior to the law, called the law of Moses, 
even admitting- Moses to have been the giver of that law, of which 
there is great cause to doubt. 

We have here two different epochs, or points of time ; that of 
the flood, and that of the law of Moses; the former more than six 
hundred years prior to the latter. But the maker of the story of 
the flood, whoever he was, has betrayed himself by blundering, for 
he has reversed the order of the times. He has told the story, as 
if the law of Moses was prior to the flood ; for he has made God 
to say to Noah, Genesis, chap. vii. ver. 2, "Of every clean beast, 
thou shalt take unto thee by sevens, male and his female, and of 
beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female." This 
is the Mosaic law, and could only be said after that law was given, 
not before. There was no such things as beasts clean and un- 
clean in the time of Noah — It is no where said they were created 
so. — They were only declared to be so, as meats, by the Mosaic 
law, and that to the Jews only, and there was no such people as 
Jews in the time of Noah. This is the blundering condition in 
which this strange story stands. 

When we reflect on a sentence so tremendously severe, as that 
of consigning the whole human race, eight persons excepted, to 
deliberate drowning ; a sentence, which represents the Creator 
in a more merciless character than any of those whom we call Pa- 
gans, ever represented the Creator to be, under the figure of any 
of their deities, we ought at least to suspend our belief of it, on a 
comparison of the beneficent character of the Creator, with the 
tremendous severity of the sentence ; but when we see the story 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 



171 



told with such an evident contradiction of circumstances, we ought 
to set it down for nothing better than a Jewish fable, told by no- 
body knows whom, and nobody knows when. 

It is a relief to the genuine and sensible soul of man to find the 
story unfounded. It frees us from two painful sensations at once; 
that of having hard thoughts of the Creator, on account of the se- 
verity of the sentence ; and that of sympathising in the horrrid tra- 
gedy of a drowning world. He who cannot feel the force of what 
I mean, is not, in my estimation of character, worthy the name of 
a human being. 

I have just said there is great cause to doubt, if the law, called 
the law # of Moses, was given by Moses ; the books, called the 
books of Moses, which contain among other things, what is called 
the Mosaic law, are put in front of the Bible, in the manner of a 
constitution, with a history annexed to it. Had these bo<jks been 
written by Moses, they would undoubtedly have been the oldest 
books in the Bible, and entitled to be placed first, and the law and 
the history they contain, would be frequently referred to in the 
books that follow ; but this is not the case. From the time of 
Othniel the first of the judges (Judges, chap. iii. ver. 9.) to the 
end of the book of Judges, which contains a period of four hun- 
dred and ten years, this law, and those books, were not in practice, 
nor known among the Jews, nor are they so much as alluded to 
throughout the whole of that period. And if the reader will ex- 
amine the 22d and 23d chapters of the 2d book of Kings, and 34th 
chapter 2d Ohron. he will find that no such law, nor any such 
books were known in the time of the Jewish monarchy, and that 
the Jews were Pagans during the whole of that time, and of their 
judges. 

The first time the law, called the law of Moses, made its ap- 
pearance, was in the time of Josiah, about a thousand years alter 
Moses was dead ; it is then said to have been found by accident. 
The account of this finding, or pretended finding, is given, 2d 
Chron. chap, xxxiv. ver. 14, 15, 16, 18: "Hilkiah the priest found 
the book of the law of the Lord, given by Moses ; and Hilkiah an- 
swered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of 
the law in the house of the Lord ; and Hilkiah delivered the book 
to Shaphan, and carried the book to the king, and Shaphan told 
the king (Josiah) saying, Hilkiah the priest hath given me a 
book." 

In consequence of this finding, which much resembles that of 
poor Chatterton finding manuscript poems of Rowley the Monk, 
in the Cathedral church at Bristol, or the late finding of manu^ 
I scripts of Shakespeare in an old chest, (two well known frauds,) 
Josiah abolished the Pagan religion of the Jews, massacred all the 
i Pagan priests, though he himself had been a Pagan, as the reader 
| will see in the 23d chap. 2d Kings, and thus established in blood, 
I the law that is there called the law of Moses, and instituted a pass-? 



in 



LETTER TO MR, ERSKINE. 



over in commemoration thereof. The 22d vei\ speaking of this 
passover, says, "Surely there was not holden such a passover from 
the days of the judges, that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the 
kings of Israel, nor the kings of Judah and the 25th verse in 
speaking of this priest-killing Josiah, says, "Like unto him there 
was no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, 
and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the 
law of Moses ; neither after him arose there any like him." This 
verse, like the former one, is a general declaration against all the 
preceding kings without exception. It is also a declaration against 
all that reigned after him, of which there were four, the whole 
time of whose reigning makes but twenty-two years and six 
months, before the Jews were entirely broken up as a nation and 
their monarchy destroyed. It is therefore evident that the law, 
called the law of Moses, of which the Jews talk so much, was pro- 
mulgated and established only in the latter time of the Jewish 
monarchy ; and it is very remarkable, that no sooner had they es- 
tablished it than they were a destroyed people, as if they were 
punished for acting an imposition and affixing the name of the 
Lord to it, and massacreing their former priests under the pre- 
tence of religion. The sum of the history of the Jews is this — « 
they .continued to be a nation about a thousand years, they then 
established a law, which they called the law of the Lord given by 
Moses j and were destroyed. This is not opinion, but historical 
evidence. 

Levi the Jew, who has written an answer to the Age of Reason, 
gives a strange account of the law called the law of Moses. 

In speaking of the story of the sun and moon standing still, that 
the Israelites might cut the throats of all their enemies, and hang 
all their kings, as told in Joshua, ch. x. he says, " There is also 
another proof of the reality of this miracle, which is, the appeal 
that the author of the book of Joshua makes to the book of Ja- 
sher — c Is not this written in the book of Jasher V Hence," conti- 
nues Levi, u it is manifest that the book commonly called the book 
of Jasher, existed, and was well known at the time the book of 
Joshua was written ; and pray, Sir," continues Levi, " what book 
do you think this was ? why, no other than the law of Moses /" — 
Levi, like the Bishop of LlandafF, and many other guess-work com- 
mentators, either forgets, or does not know, what there is in one 
part of the Bible, when he is giving his opinion upon another part. 

I did not, however, expect to find so much ignorance in a Jew 
with respect to the history of his nation, though I might not be 
surprised at it in a Bishop. If Levi will look into the account 
given in the first chap. 2d book of Samuel, of the Amalekite slay- 
ing Saul, and bringing the crown and bracelets to David, he will 
find the following recital, ver. 15, 17, 18 : "And David called 
one of the young men, and said, go near and fall Upon him, (the 
Amalekite) and he smote him that he died : and David lamented 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 



173 



with this lamentation over Saul, and over Jonathan his son ; also 
he bade them teach the children the use of the bow ; — behold, it is 
written in the book of Jasher." If the book of Jasher were what 
Levi calls it, the law of Moses, written by Moses, it is not possible 
that any thing that David said or did, could be written in that law, 
since Moses died more than five hundred years before David was 
born ; and on the other hand, admitting the book of Jasher to be 
the law called the law of Moses ; that law must have been written 
more than five hundred years after Moses was dead, or it could 
not relate any thing said or done by David. Levi may take which 
of these cases he pleases, for both are against him. 

I am not going in the course of this letter to write a commenta- 
ry on the Bible. The two instances I have produced, and which 
are taken from the beginning of the Bible, show the necessity of 
examining it. It is a book that has been read more, and exam- 
ined less, than any book that ever existed. Had it come to us an 
Arabic or Chinese book, and said to have been a sacred book by 
the people from whom.it came, no apology would have been made 
for the confused and disorderly state it is in. The tales it relates 
of the Creator would have been censured, and our pi'y excited 
for those who believed them. We .should have vindicated the 
goodness of God against such a book, and preached up the disbe- 
lief of it out of reverence to him. Why then do we not act as 
honourably by the Creator in the one case as we would do in the 
other. As a Chinese book we would have examined it ; — ought 
we not then to examine it as a Jewish book ? The Chinese are a, 
people who have all the appearance of far greater antiquity than 
the Jews, and in point of permanency there is no comparison. — 
They are also a people of mild manners and of good morals, ex- 
cept where they have been corrupted by European commerce. — 
Yet we take the word of a restless bloody-minded people, as the 
Jews of Palestine were, when we would reject the same authority 
from a better people. We ought to see it is v habit and prejudice 
that have prevented people from examining the Bible. Those of 
the church of England call it holy, because the Jews called it so, 
, and because custom and certain acts of parliament call it so, and 
they read it from custom. Dissenters read it for the purpose of 
doctrinal controversy, and are very fertile in discoveries and in- 
ventions. But none of them read it for the pure purpose of infor- 
mation, and of rendering justice to the Creator, by examining if 
the evidence it contains warrants the belief of its being what it is 
called. Instead of doing this, they take it blindfolded, and will 
I have it to be the word of God whether it be so or not. For my 
;* own part, my belief in the perfection of the Deity will not permit 
! me to believe, that a book so manifestly obscure, disorderly, and 
j contradictory, can be his work. I can write a better book myself. 
I This disbelief in me proceeds from my belief in the Creator. I 
j cannot pin rny faith upon the say so of Hilkiah the priest, who said 
15* 



174 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 



he found it, or any part of it, nor upon Shaphan the scribe, nor 
upon any priests, nor any scribe or man of the law of the present 
day. 

As to acts of parliament, there are some tha* say there are 
witches and wizards ; and the persons who made those acts (it 
was in the time of James the First,) made also some acts which 
call the Bible the Holy Scriptures, or Word of God. But acts of 
parliament decide nothing with respect to God ; and as these acts 
of parliament makers were wrong with respect to witches and wiz- 
ards, they may also be wrong with respect to the book in question.* 
It is therefore necessary that the book be examined ; it is our 

* It is afflicting to humanity to reflect that, after the blood shed to establish the 
divinity of the Jewish scriptures, it should have become necessary to grant a new dis- 
pensation, which, through unbelief and conflicting opinions respecting its true con- 
struction, has cost as great or greater si>.:rifices than the former. Catholics, when 
they had the ascendency, burnt Protestants, who, in turn, led Catholics to the stake, 
and both united in exterminating Dissenters. The Dissenters, when they had the 
power, pursued the same course. The diabolical act of Calvin, in the burning of 
Dr. Servetus, is an awful witness of this fact. Servetus suffered two hours in a 
slow fire before life was extinct. The Dissenters, who escaped from England, had 
scarcely seated themselves in the wilds of America, before they began to exterminate 
from the territory they seized upon, all those who did not profess what they called 
the orthodox faith. Priests, Quakers, and Adamites, were prohibited from enter- 
ing ihe territory, on pain of death. By priests, they meant clergymen of the Roman 
Catholic, if not also of the Protestant or Episcopal persuasion. Their own priests 
they denominated ministers. These puritans also, particularly in the province of 
Massachusetts-Bay, put many persons to death on the charge of witchcraft. There 
is no account however of their having burned any alive, as was done in Scotland, 
about the same period in which the executions took place in Massachusetts-Bay. In 
England, Sir Matthew Hale, a judge, eminent for extraordinary piety, condemned 
two women to death on the same charge. 

I doubt, however, if there be any acts of the parliament now in force for inflicting 
pains and penalties for denying the scriptures to be the word of God : as our up- 
right judges seem to rely at this time wholly upon, what they call, the common law 
to justify the horrid persecutions which are now carried on in England., to the dis- 
grace of a country that boasts so much of its tolerant spirit. 

As the common law is derived from the customs of our ancestors, when in a rude 
and barbarous condition, it is not surprising that many of its injunctions should be or> 
posed to the ideas, which a society in a civilized and refined state should deem com- 
patible with justice and right. Accordingly we find that government has from time 
to time annulled some of its most prominent absurdities; such as the trials by ordeal, 
the wager of battle in case of appeal for murder, under a belief that a supernatural 
power would interfere to save the innocent and destroy the guilty in such a combat, 
&c. Yet much remains nearly as ridiculous, that requires a furtiier and more liberal 
use of the pruning knife. 

" In the days of the Stewarts, (A. D. 1670, 22d year of Charles II. See the Re- 
publican, vol. 5. p. 22.) William Perm was indicted at Common Law for a riot and 
breach of the peace, on having delivered his sentiments to a congregation of people, in 
Grace-church-street : he told the judge and the jury that Common Law was an abuse, 
and no law at all ; and in spite of the threats, the fines and imprisonments inflicted 
on his jury, they acquitted him on this plea. William Perm found an honest jury*'* 

The introduction however of Christianity, as composing a part of this Common 
Law (bad as much of it is,) is proved to be a fraud or misconception of the old Norman 
French ; as I shall show by an extract of a letter from the celebrated American 
statesman, Thomas Jefferson, to our worthy Major Cartwright, bearing date 5th 
June, 1824. 

[For a more full developement of this subject, see Sampson's Anniversary Discourse, 
before the Historical Society of New- York. editor.} 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 



175 



duty to examine it ; and to suppress the riglit of examination is 
sinful in any government, or in any judge or jury. The Bible 
makes God to say to Moses, Deut. chap. vii. ver. 2, " And when 

Extract from Jefferson 9 s letter, 

(< I am glad to find in your book (The English Constitution, produced and illustra- 
ted) a formal contradiction, at length, of die judiciary usurpation of legislative power; 
for such the judges have usurped in their repeated decisions, that Christianity is a 
part of the common law. The proof of the contrary, which you have adduced, is 
incontrovertible : to wit, that the common law existed while the Anglo-Saxons were 
yet Pagans ; at a time when they had never yet heard the name of Christ pronounced, 
or knew that suck a character had ever existed. But it may amuse you to show 
when, and by what means, they stole this law in upon us. In a case ofQuare Impedit, 
in the year book, 34 Herwy VI. fo. 38, [1458,] a question was made how far the Ec- 
clesiastical law was to be respected in a common law court 1 and Prisot, C. J., gave 
his opinion in these words : — i A tiel les que ils de saint egli&e ont en ancien scripture, 
covient a nous a donner credence : car ceo Commen Ley sur quels touts manners leis 
sont fonddes. Et anxy, Sir, nous sumus obliges de conustre lour ley de saint eglise : 
et semblabement ils sont obliges de conustre nostre ley — Et, Sir, si poit apperer or a 
nous que l'evesque adfait come un ordinary fera en tiel cas, adorez nous devons ceo 
adjuger bon, ou auterment nemy V &c. [To such laws as they have of the an- 
cient scriptures, it behoves us to give credence : for it is that common law upon which 
all kinds of law are founded ; and therefore sir are we bound to know their law of 
holy church, and in like manner are they obliged to know our laws. And, sir, if it 
should appear now to us, that the Bishop had done what an ordinary ought to do ia 
like case, then we should adjudge it good, and not otherwise.*] 

<£ See G. C. Fitz. abr. qu. imp. 89. Bro. abr. qu. imp. 12. Finch in his 1st Book, 
c. 3, is the first afterwards who quotes the case, and mistates it thus, ' to such laws 
of the church as have warrant in Holy Scripture, our law giveth credence,' and 
cites Prisot ; mistranslating * ancient Scripture' into * holy Scripture whereas 
Prisot palpably says, e to such laws as those of holy church have in ancient writ- 
ing it is proper for us to give credence;' to wit, their ancient written laws. This 
was in 1513, a century and a half after the dictum of Prisot. Wingate, in 1658. 
erects this false translation into a maxim of the common law, copying the words of 
Finch, but citing Prisot. Wingate, max. 3, and Sheppard, tit. « Religion, in 1675 
copies the same mistranslat ion, quoting the Y. 13, Finch and Wingate. Hale ex 
presses it in these words : ( Christianity is parcel of the law of England' — 1 Ventris 
293. 3. Keb. 607, but quotes no authority. By these echoings and re-echoings from 
one to another, it had become so established in 1723, that in the case of the King v. 
Woolston, 2. Stra. 834, the court would not suffer it to be debated, whether to write 
against Christianity was punishable in the temporal court at common law. Wood, 
therefore, 409, ventures still to vary the phrase, and says, 4 that all blasphemy and 
profaneness are offences by the common law,' and cites 2 Stra. — then Blackstone, 
in 1773, iv. 59, repeats the words of Hale, that 6 Christianity is part of the law of 
England,' citing Ventris and Strange ; and finally, Lord Mansfield, with a little quali- 
fication, in Evan's case in 1767, says, that * the essential principles of revealed re- 
ligion are parts of the common law ;' thus ingulfing Bible, Testament, and all into 
the common law, without citing any authority ; and thus we find this chain of au- 
thorities hanging, link by link, one upon another, and all ultimately on one and the 
same hook ; and that, a mistranslation of the words 6 ancient scripture,'' used by 
Prisot. Finch quotes Prisot; Wingate does the same; Sheppard quotes Prisot, 
Finch, and Wingate ; Hale cites nobody ; the court in Woolston's case, cites Hale ; 
Wood cites Woolston's case; Blackstone quotes Woolston's case and Hale; and 
Lord Mansfield, like Hale, ventures it on his own authority. Here I might defy the 
best read lawyer to produce another scrap of authority for this judiciary forgery ; 
and I might go on further to show how some of the Anglo-Saxon priests interpolated 
into the text of Alfred's laws the 20th, 21st, 22d, and 23d chapters of Exodus, and 
the 15th of the Acts of the Apostles, from the 23d to the 29th verses; but this would 
lead my pen, and your patience, too far. What a conspiracy this, between church 
and state ! ! !" 

[* The canons of the church anciently were incorporated with the Laws of the 
land, and of the same authority. See Dr. Henry's hist. G. Britain. Editor.} 



176 



LETTER TO MR. ERSEINE. 



the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, thou sh alt smite 
them, and utterly destroy them, thou shalt make no covenant with 
them, nor show mercy unto them" Not all the priests, nor scribes, 
nor tribunals in the world, nor all the authority of man, shall make 
me believe that God ever gave such a Robesperian precept as that 
of showing no mercy ; and consequently it is impossible that I, or 
any person who believes as reverentially of the Creator as I do, 
can believe such a book to be the word of God. 

There have been, and still are those, who, whilst iliey projess 
to believe the Bible to be the word of God, affect to turn it into 
ridicule. Taking their profession and conduct together, they act 
blasphemously : because they act as if God himself was not to be 
believed. The case is exceedingly different with respect to the 
Jige of Reason. That book is written to show from the Bible it- 
self, that there is abundant matter to suspect it is not the word of 
God, and that we have been imposed upon, first by Jews, and af- 
terwards by priests and commentators. 

Not one of those who have attempted to write answers to the 
Jige of Reason, have taken the ground upon which only an answer 
could be written. The case in question is not upon any point of 
doctrine, but altogether upon a matter of fact. Is the book called . 
the Bible the word of God, or is it not ? If it can be proved to be 
so, it ought to be believed as such ; if not, it ought not to be be- 
lieved as such. This is the true state of the case. The' Jige of 
Reason produces evidence to show, and I have in this letter pro- 
duced additional evidence, that it is not the word of God. Those 
who take the contrary side, should prove that it is. But this they 
have not done, nor attempted to do, and consequently they have 
done nothing to the purpose. 

The prosecutors of Williams have shrunk from the point, as the 
answers have done. They have availed themselves of prejudice 
instead of proof. If a writing was produced in a court of judica- 
ture, said to be the writing of a certain person, and upon the reali- 
ty or non-reality of which, some matter at issue depended, the 
point to be proved would be, that* such^writing was the writing of 
such person. Or if the issue depended upon certain words, which 
some ct**tain person was said to have spoken, the point to be prov- 
ed would he, that such words were spoken by such person ; and 
Mr. Erskme would contend the case upon this ground. A certain 
book is said to be the word of God. What is the proof that it is so ? 
for upon this the whole depends ; and if it cannot be proved to be 
so, the prosecution fails for want of evidence. 

The prosecution against Williams charges him with publishing 
a book, entitled The Jige of Reason, which it says, is an impious, 
blasphemous pamphlet, tending to ridicule and bring into contempt 
the Holy Scriptures. Nothing is more easy than to find abusive 
words, and English prosecutions are famous for this species of vul- 
garity. The charge, however, is sophistical ; for the charge, as 



LETTER TO MR. ERSIHNE. 



177 



growing out of the pamphlet, should have stated, not as it now 
states, to ridicule and hring into contempt the Holy Scriptures, but 
to show, that the book called the Holy Scriptures are not the Ho- 
ly Scriptures. It is one thing if I ridicule a work as being writ- 
ten by a certain person ; but it is quite a different thing if I write 
to prove that such work was not written by such person. In the 
first case, I attack the person through the work ; in the other case, 
I defend the honour of the person against the work. This is what 
the Age of Reason does, and consequently the charge in the in- 
dictment is sophistically stated. Every one will admit, that if the 
Bible be not the word of God, we err in believing it to be his word, 
and ought not to believe it. Certainly, then, the ground the prose- 
cution should take, would be to prove that the Bible is in fact what 
it is called. But this the prosecution has not done, and cannot do. 

In all cases the prior fact must be proved, before the subse- 
quent facts can be admitted in evidence. In a prosecution for 
adultery, the fact of marriage, which is the prior fact, must be 
proved before the facts to prove adultery can be received. If the 
fact of marriage cannot be proved, adultery cannot be proved ; 
and if the prosecution cannot prove the Bible to be the word of 
God, the charge of blasphemy is visionary and groundless. 

In Turkey they might prove, if the case happened, that a cer- 
tain book was bought of a certain bookseller, and that the said 
book was written against the Koran, In Spain and Portugal they 
might prove, that a certain book was bought of a certain booksel- 
ler, and that the said book was written against the infallibility of 
the Pope. Under the ancient mythology they might have proved, 
that a certain writing was bought of a certain person, and that 
the said writing was written against the belief of a plurality of 
Gods, and in the support of the belief of one God. Socrates was 
condemned for a work of this kind. 

All these are but subsequent facts, and amount to nothing, un- 
less the prior facts be proved. The prior fact, with respect to 
the first case, is, Is the Koran the word of God ? With respect to 
the second, Is the infallibility of the Pope a truth? With respect 
to the third, Is the belief of a plurality of Gods a true belief ? and 
in like manner with respect to the present prosecution, Is the book 
called the Bible the word of God ? If the present prosecution 
prove no more than could be proved in any or all of these cases, 
it proves only as they do, or as an inquisition would prove ; and 
in this view of the case, the prosecutors ought at least to leave off 
reviling that infernal institution, the inquisition. The prosecu- 
tion, however, though it may injure the individual, may promote 
the cause of truth ; because the manner in which it has been con- 
ducted, appears a confession to the world, that there is no evi- 
dence to prove that the Bible is the word of God. On what au- 
thority then do we believe the many strange stories that the Bible 
tells of God ? 



178 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 



This prosecution has been carried on through the medium of 
what is called a special jury, and the whole of a special jury is 
nominated by the master of the crown office. 3Ir. Erskine vaunts 
himself upon the bill he brought into parliament, with respect to 
trials, for what the government partv calls libels. But if in crown 
prosecutions, the master of the crown office is to continue to ap- 
point the whole special jury, which he does hj nominating the 
forty eight persons from which the solicitor of each party is to 
strike out twelve, Mr. Erskine's bill is only vapour and smoke 
The root of the grievance lies in the manner of forming the jury, 
and to this Mr. Erskine 's bill applies no remedy. 

When the trial of Williams came on, only eleven of the special 
jurymen appeared, and the trial was adjourned. In cases where 
the whole number do not appear, it is customary to make up the 
deficiency by taking jurymen from persons present in the court. 
TMs, in the law term, is called a Tales. Why was not this done 
in this case ? Reason will suggest, that they did not choose to 
depend on a man accidentally taken. When the trial re-com- 
menced, the whole of the special jurv appeared, and Williams 
was convicted : it is folly to contend a cause where the whole 
jury is nominated by one of the parties. I will relate a recent 
case that explains a great deal with respect to special juries in 
crown prosecutions. 

On the trial of Lambert and others, printers and proprietors of 
the JWortunz; Chronicle, for a libel, a special jury was struck, on 
the prayer of the Attorney-General, who used to be called Diabo- 
lus Regis, or King's Devil. 

Only seven or eight of the special jury appeared, and the At- 
torney-General not praying a Tales, the trial stood over to a fu- 
ture day ; when it was to be brought on a second time, the At- 
torney-General prayed for a new special jury, but as this was 
not admissible, the original special jury was summoned. Only 
eight of them appeared, on which the Attorney-General said, 
11 As I cannot, on a second trial, have a special jury, I will pray 
a Tales.'- Four persons were then taken from the persons pres- 
ent in court, and added to the eight special jurymen. The jury- 
went out at two o'clock to consult on their verdict, and the Judge 
(Kenyon) understanding they were divided, and likely to be 
gome time in making up their minds, retired from the bench, and 
went home. At seven the jury went, attended by an officer of 
the court, to the Judge's house, and delivered a verdict, u Guilty 
of publishing, but with no malicious intention/'' The Judge said, 
a I cannot record this verdict ; it is no verdict at ally The jury 
withdrew, and after sitting in consultation till rive in the morning, 
brought in a verdict, Not Guilty, Would this have been the 
case,"had they been all special jurymen nominated by the Master 
of the Crown-office ? This is one of the cases that ought to 



LETTER TO: MR. ERSKINE. 



open the eyes of people with respect to the manner of forming 
special juries. 

On the trial of Williams, the Judge prevented the counsel for 
the defendant proceeding in the defence. The prosecution had 
selected a number of passages from the Age of Reason, and in- 
serted them in the indictment. The defending counsel was select- 
ing other passages to show, that the passages in the indictment 
were conclusions drawn from premises, and unfairly separated 
therefrom in the indictment. The Judge said, he did not know 
how to act ; meaning thereby whether to let the counsel proceed 
in the defence or not, and asked the jury if they wished to hear 
the passages read which the defending counsel had selected. 
The jury said no, and the defending counsel was in consequence 
silent. Mr. Erskine then, Falstaff like, having all the field to 
himself, and no enemy at hand, laid about him most heroically, 
and the jury found the defendant guilty. I know not if Mrt Ers- 
kine ran out of court and hallooed, huzza for the Bible and 
the trial by jury. 

Robespierre caused a decree to be passed during the trial of 
Brissot and others, that after a trial had lasted three days, (the 
whole of which time, in the case of Brissot, was taken up by the 
prosecuting party) the judge should ask the jury (who were then 
a packed jury) if they were satisfied ? If the Jury said yes, the trial 
ended, and the jury proceeded to give their verdict, without hear- 
ing the defence of the accused party. It needs no depth of wis- 
dom to make an application of this case. 

I will now state a case to show that the trial of Williams is not 
a trial, according to Kenyon's own explanation of law. 

On a late trial in London ( Selthens versus Hoossman) on a poli- 
cy of insurance, one of the jurymen, Mr. Dunnage, after hearing 
one side of the case, and without hearing the other side, got up 
and said, it was as legal a policy of insurance as ever was written. 
The Judge, who was the same as presided on the trial of Williams, 
replied, that it ivas a great misfojiune when any gentleman of the 
jury makes up his mind on a cause before it was finished. Mr. Ers- 
kine, who in that case was counsel for the defendant (in this he 
was against the defendant) cried out, it is worse than a misfortune, 
it is a fault. The Judge, in his address to the jury in summing 
up the evidence, expatiated upon, and explained the parts which 
the law assigned to the counsel on each side, to the witnesses, 
and to the Judge, and said, " When all this was done, and not un- 
til then, it ivas the business of the jury to declare what the justice 
of the case teas ; and that it was extremely rash and imprudent in 
any man to draw a conclusion before all the premises were laid be- 
fore them, upon which that conclusion ivas to be grounded.^ Ac- 
cording then to Kenyon's own doctrine, the trial of Williams is 
an irregular trial, the verdict an irregular verdict, and as such is 
not recordable. 



180 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 



As to special juries, they were but modern ; and were institut- 
ed for the purpose of determining cases at law between mer 
chants ; because, as the method of keeping merchants' accounts 
differs from that of common tradesmen, and their business, by 
lying much in foreign bills of exchange, insurance, &c, is of a 
different description to that of common tradesmen, it might hap- 
pen that a common jury might not be competent to form a judg- 
ment. The law that instituted special juries, makes it necessary 
that the jurors be merchants, or of the degree of squires. A spe- 
cial jury in London is generally composed of merchants ; and 
in the country of men called country squires, that is, fox-hunters, 
or men qualified to hunt foxes. The one may decide very well 
upon a case of pounds, shillings, and pence, or of the counting- 
house ; and the other of the jockey-club or the chase. But who 
would not laugh, that because such men can decide such cases, 
they can also be jurors upon theology. Talk with some London 
merchants about scripture, and they will understand you mean 
scrip, and tell you how much it is worth at the Stock Exchange. 
Ask them about theology, and they will say, they know of no 
such gentleman upon Change. Tell some country squires of 
the sun and moon standing still, the one on the top of a hill and 
the other in a valley, and they will swear it is a lie of one's own 
making. Tell them that God Almighty ordered a man to make 
a cake and bake it with a t — d and eat it, and they will say it is 
one of Dean Swift's blackguard stories. Tell them it is in the 
Bible, and they will lay a bowl of punch it is not, and leave it to 
the parson of the parish to decide. Ask them also about theolo- 
gy, and they will say, they know of no such one on the turf. 
An appeal to such juries serves to bring the Bible into more 
ridicule than any thing the author of the 3ge of Reason has writ- 
ten ; and the manner in which the trial has been conducted 
shows, that the prosecutor dares not come to the point, nor meet 
the defence of the defendant. But all other cases apart, on 
what ground of right, otherwise than on the right assumed by an 
inquisition, do such prosecutions stand ? Religion is a private 
affair between every man and his Maker, and no tribunal of third 
party has a right to interfere between them. Tt is not properly 
a thing of this world ; it is only practised in this world ; but its 
object is in a future world ; and it is no otherwise an object of 
just laws, than for the purpose of protecting the equal rights of 
all, however various their beliefs may be. If one man choose 
to believe the book called the Bible to be the word of God, and 
another, from the convinced idea of the purity and perfection of 
God, compared with the contradictions the book contains — from 
the lasciviousness of some of its stories, like that of Lot getting 
drunk and debauching his two daughters, which is not spoken 
of as a crime, and for which the most absurd apologies are made 

from the immorality of some of its precepts, like that of showing 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKItfE. 



181 



no mercy — and from the total want of evidence on the case, thinks 
he ought not to helieve it to be the word of God, each of them 
has an equal right ; and if the one has a right to give his reasons 
for believing it to be so, the other has an equal right to give his 
reasons for believing the contrary. Any thing that goes beyond 
this rule is an inquisition Mr. Erskine talks of his moral ed- 
uation ; Mr. Erskine is very little acquainted with theological 
subjects, if he does not know there is such a thing as a sincere 
and religious belief that the Bible is not the word of God. This 
is my belief ; it is the belief of thousands far more learned than 
Mr. Erskine ; and it is a belief that is every day increasing. It 
is not infidelity, as Mr. Erskine profanely and abusively calls 
it : it is the direct reverse of infidelity. It is a pure religious 
belief, founded on the idea of the perfection of the Creator. If 
the Bible be the word of God, it needs not the wretched aid of 
prosecutions to support it ; and you might with as much proprie- 
ty make a law to protect the sunshine, as to protect the Bible, if 
the Bible, like the sun, be the work of God. We see that God 
takes good care of the Creation he has made. He suffers no 
part of it to be extinguished : and he will take the same care of 
his word, if he ever gave one. But men ought to be reverentially 
careful and suspicious how they ascribe books to him as his ivord y 
which from this confused condition would dishonour a common 
scribbler, and against which there is abundant evidence, and 
every cause to suspect imposition. Leave then the Bible to it- 
self. God will take care of it if he has any thing to do with it, 
as he takes care of the sun and the moon, which need not your 
laws for their better protection. As the two instances I have 
produced in the beginning of this letter, from the book of Gene- 
sis, the one respecting the account called the Mosaic account 
of the Creation, the other of the Flood, sufficiently show the ne- 
cessity of examining the Bible, in order to ascertain what degree 
of evidence there is for receiving or rejecting it as a sacred 
book ; I shall not add more upon that subject ; but in order to 
show Mr. Erskine that there are religious establishments for pub- 
lic worship which make no profession of faith of the books call- 
ed holy scriptures, nor admit of priests, I will conclude with an 
account of a society lately began in Paris, and which is very 
rapidly extending itself. 

The society takes the name of Theophilantropes, which would 
be rendered in English by the word Theophilanthropists, a word 
compounded of three Greek words, signifying God, Love, and 
Man. The explanation given to this word is, Lovers of God and 
Man, or Adorers of God and Friends of Man, adorateurs de Dieu 
et amis des hommes.. The society proposes to publish each year 
a volume, entitled, Anne Religieuse des Theophilantropes, Re- 
ligious year of the Theophilanthropists : the first volume is just 
published, entitled 

16 



182 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 



RELIGIOUS YEAR of the THEOPHILANTHROPISTS, 

OR, 

ADORERS OF GOD, AND FRIEJS'DS OF MAN. 

Being a collection of the discourses, lectures, hymns, and can- 
ticles, for all the religious and moral festivals of the Theophilan- 
thropists during the course of the year, whether in their public 
temples or in their private families, published by the author of the 
Manuel of the Theophilanthropists. 

The volume of this year, which is the first, contains 214 pages 
duodecimo. 

The following is the table of contents : — 

1. Precise history of the Theophilanthropists. 

2. Exercises common to all the festivals. 

3. Hymn, No. 1, God of whom the universe speaks. 

4. Discourse upon the existence of God. 

5. Ode II. The heavens instruct the earth. 

6. Precepts of wisdom, extracted from the book of the Ado- 

rateurs. 

7. Canticle, No. III. God Creator, soul of nature. 

8. Extracts from divers moralists upon the nature of God, and 

upon the physical proofs of his existence. 

9. Canticle, No. IV. Let us bless at our waking the God who 

gives us light. 

10. Moral thoughts extracted from the Bible. 

11. Hymn, No. V. Father of the universe. 

12. Contemplation of nature on the first days of the spring. 

13. Ode, No. YI. Lord in thy glory adorable. 

14. Extracts from the moral thoughts of Confucius. 

15. Canticle in praise of actions, and thanks for the works of the 

creation. 

16. Continuation from the moral thoughts of Confucius. 

17. Hymn, No. VII. All the universe is full of thy magnificence. 

18. Extracts from an ancient sage of India upon the duties of 

families. 

19. Upon the spring. 

20. Moral thoughts of divers Chinese authors. 

21. Canticle, No. VIII. Every thing celebrate the glory of the 

eternal. 

22. Continuation of the moral thoughts of Chinese authors. 

23. Invocation for the country. 

24. Extracts from the moral thoughts of Theognis. 

25. Invocation, Creator of man. 

26. Ode, No. IX. Upon Death. 

27. Extracts from the book of the Moral Universal, upon happi- 

ness. 

28. Ode, No. X. Supreme Author of Nature. 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 



183 



INTRODUCTION, 

ENTITLED 

PRECISE HISTORY OF THE TIIEOPHILANTHROPISTS. 

" Towards the month of Vendimiaire, of the year 5, (Sept 
1796) there appeared at Paris a small work, entitled, Manuel of 
the Tbeoantropophiles, since called, for the sake of easier pro- 
nunciation, Theophilantropes, (Theophilanthropists,) published 
by C— . 

u The worship set forth in this Manuel, of which the origin is 
from the beginning of the world, was then professed by some fam- 
ilies in the silence of domestic life. But no sooner was the Man- 
uel published, than some persons, respectable for their knowledge 
and their manners, saw, in the formation of a society open to the 
public, an easy method of spreading moral religion, and of leading 
by degrees, great numbers to the knowledge thereof, who appear 
to have forgotten it. This consideration ought of itself not to 
leave indifferent those persons who know that morality and reli- 
gion, which is the most solid support thereof, are necessary to the 
maintenance of society, as well as to the happiness of the individ- 
ual. These considerations determined the families of the Theo- 
philanthropists to unite publicly for the exercise of their worship. 

" The first society of this kind opened in the month of Nivose, 
year 5, (Jan. 1797) in the street Dennis, No. 34, corner of Lom- 
bard-street. The care of conducting this society was undertak- 
en by five fathers of families. They adopted the Manuel of the 
Theophilanthropists. They agreed to hold their days of public 
worship on the days corresponding to Sundays, but without mak- 
ing this a hindrance to other societies to choose such other day 
as they thought more convenient. Soon after this, more socie- 
ties were opened, of which some celebrate on the decadi (tenth 
nay) and others on the Sunday : it was also resolved, that the 
committee should meet one hour each week for the purpose of 
preparing or examining the discourses and lectures proposed for 
the next general assembly. That the general assemblies should 
be called Fetes (festivals) religious and moral. That those fes- 
tivals should be conducted in principle and form, in a manner, 
as not to be considered as the festivals of an exclusive worship ; 
and that in recalling those who might not be attached to any par- 
ticular worship, those festivals might also be attended as moral 
exercises by disciples of every sect, and consequently avoid, by 
scrupulous care, every thing that might make the society appear 
under the name of a sect. The society adopts neither yites nor 
priesthood, and it will never lose sight of the resolution not to 
advance any thing, as a society, inconvenient to any sect or 
sects, in any time or country, and under any government. 

" It will be seen, that it is so much the more easy for the soci- 
etv to keep within this circle, because, that the dogmas of the The- 



184 



LETTEH TO MR. ERSKINE. 



©philanthropists are those upon which all the sects have agreed, 
that their moral is that upon which there has never been the least 
dissent ; and that the name they have taken, expresses the double 
end of all the sects, that of leading to the adoration of God and 
love of man. 

" The Theophilanthropists do not call themselves the disciples 
of such qi* such a man. They avail themselves of the wise pre- 
cepts that have been transmitted by writers of all countries and in 
all ages. The reader will find in the discourses, lectures, hymns, 
and canticles, which the Theophilanthropists have adopted for 
their religious and moral festivals, and which they present under 
the title of Annee Religieuse, extracts from moralists, ancient and 
modern, divested of maxims too severe, or too loosely conceived, 
or contrary to piety, whether towards God or towards man." 

Next follow the dogmas of the Theophilanthropists, or things 
they profess to believe. These are but two, and are thus ex- 
pressed, les Theopliilantropes croient a V existence de Diea, et a Fim- 
onortalite de Vame. The Theophilanthropists believe in the exis- 
tence of God, and the immortality of the soul. 

The Manuel of the Theophilanthropists, a small volume of 
sixty pages, duodecimo, is published separately, as is also their 
catechism, which is of the same size. The principles of the The- 
ophilanthropists are the same as those published in the first part 
of the Age of Reason in 1793, and in the second part in 1795.- — 
The Theophilanthropists, as a society, are silent upon all the 
things they do not profess to believe, as the sacredness of the 
books called the Bible, &.c. &c. They profess the immortality of 
the soul, but they are silent on the immortality of the body, or 
that which the church calls the resurrection. The author of the 
Age of Reason gives reasons for every thing he disbelieves, as well 
as for those he believes; and where this cannot be done with safe- 
ty, the government is a despotism, and the church an inquisition. 

It is more than three years since the first part of the Age of 
Reason was published, and more than a year and a half since the 
publication of the second part : the Bishop of LlandafF undertook 
to write an answer to the second part ; and it was not until after 
it was known that the author of the Age of Reason would reply to 
the bishop, that the prosecution against the book was set on foot ; 
and which is said to be carried on by some clergy of the English 
church. If the bishop is one of them, and the object be to pre- 
vent an exposure of the numerous and gross errors he has com- 
mitted in his work, (and which he wrote when report said that 
Thomas Paine was dead,) it is a confession that he feels the 
weakness of his cause, and finds himself unable to maintain it. 
In this case he has given me a triumph I did not seek, and Mr 
Erskine, the herald of the prosecution, has proclaimed it. 

THOMAS PAINE 



A 

DISCOURSE 

Delivered to the Society of Theophilanthropists, at Paris. 



Religion has two principal enemies, Fanaticism and Infidelity, 
or that which is called Atheism. The first requires to be com- 
bated by reason or morality, the other by natural philosophy. 

The existence of a God is the first dogma of the Theophilan- 
thropists. It is upon this subject that I solicit your attention : for 
though it has been often treated of, and that most sublimely, the 
subject is inexhaustible ; and there will always remain something 
to be said that has not been before advanced. I go therefore to 
open the subject, and to crave your attention to the end. 

The universe is the Bible of a true Theophilanthropist. It is 
there that he reads of God. It is there that the proofs of his ex- 
istence are to be sought and to be found. As to written or printed 
books, by whatever name they are called, they are the works of 
man's hands, and carry no evidence in themselves that God is the 
author of any of them. It must be in something that man could 
not make, that we must seek evidence for our belief, and that 
something is the universe ; the true Bible ; the inimitable work 
of God. * 

Contemplating the universe, the whole system of creation, in 
this point of light, we shall discover that all that which is called 
natural philosophy is properly a divine study. It is the study of 
God through his works. It is the best study, by which we can 
arrive at a knowledge of his existence, and the only one by which 
we can gain a glimpse of his perfection. 

Do we want to contemplate his power ? We see it in the im- 
mensity of the creation. Do we want to contemplate his wisdom ? 
We see it in the unchangeable order by which the incomprehensi- 
ble whole is governed. Do we want to contemplate his munifi- 
cence ? We see it in the abundance with which he fills the earth. 
Do we want to contemplate his mercy ? We see it in his not with- 
holding that abundance even from the unthankful. In fine, do we 
want to know what God is? Search not written or printed books, 
but the scripture called the Creation. 

It has been the error of the schools to teach astronomy, and all 
the other sciences, and subjects of natural philosophy, as accom- 
plishments only ; whereas they should be taught theologically, or 
with reference to the Being who is the author of them : for all the 
principles of science are of divine origin. Man cannot make, or 
invent, or contrive principles. He can only discover them ; and 
he ought to look through the discovery to the author. 
16* 



186 



DISCOURSE TO THE SOCIETY 



When we examine an extraordinary piece of machinery, an as- 
tonishing pile of architecture, a well executed statue, or an highly 
finished, painting, where life and action are imitated, and habit 
only prevents our mistaking a surface of light and shade for cu- 
bical solidity, our ideas are naturally led to think of Our extensive 
genius and talents of the artist. When we study the elements of 
geometry, we think of Euclid. When we speak of gravitation, 
we think of Newton. How then is it, that when we study the 
works of God in the creation, we stop short, and do not think of 
God ? It is from the error of the schools in having taught those 
subjects as accomplishments only, and thereby separated the 
study of them from the Being who is the author of them. 

The schools have made the study of theology to consist in the 
study of opinions in written or printed books ; whereas theology 
should be studied in the works or book of the Creation. The 
study of theology in books of opinions has often produced fanati- 
cism, rancour, and cruelty of temper ; and from hence have pro- 
ceeded the numerous persecutions, the fanatical quarrels, the re- 
ligious burnings and massacres, that have desolated Europe. But 
the study of theology in the works of the Creation produces a 
direct contrary effect. The mind becomes at once enlightened 
and serene; a copy of the scene it beholds; information and adora 
tion go hand in hand; and all the social faculties become enlarged. 

The evil that has resulted from the error of the schools, in 
teaching natural philosophy as an accomplishment only, has been 
that of generating in the pupils a species of Atheism. Instead of 
looking through the works of the creation to the Creator himself, 
they stop short, and employ the knowledge they acquire to create 
doubts of his existence. They labour with studied ingenuity to 
ascribe every thing they behold to innate properties of matter ; 
and jump over all the rest, by saying, that matter is eternal. 

Let us examine this subject ; it is worth examining ; for if we 
examine it through all its cases, the result will be, that the exist- 
ence of a superior cause, or that which man calls God, will be 
discoverable by philosophical principles. 

In the first place, admitting matter to have properties, as we see 
it has, the question still remains, how came matter by those pro- 
perties? To this they will answer, that matter possessed those 
properties eternally. This is not solution, but assertion ; and to 
deny it is equally impossible of proof as to assert it. It is then 
necessary to go further ; and therefore I say, if there exists a cir- 
cumstance that is not a property of matter, and without which the 
universe, or, to speak in a limited degree, the solar system, com- 
posed of planets and a sun, could not exist a moment ; all the ar- 
guments of Atheism, drawn from properties of matter, and applied 
to account for the universe, will be overthrown, and the existence 
of a superior cause, or that which man calls God, becomes dis- 
coverable, as is before said, by natural philosophy. 



OF THEOPHILANTHROPISTS. 



187 



I go now to show that such a circumstance exists, and what it 
is : 

The universe is composed of matter, and as a system is sus- 
tained by motion. Motion is not a property of matter, and with- 
out this motion, the solar system could not exist. Were motion a 
property of matter, that undiscovered and undiscoverable thing 
called perpetual motion would establish itself. It is because mo- 
tion is not a property of matter that perpetual motion is an impos- 
sibility in the hand of every being but that of the Creator of mo- 
tion. When the pretenders to Atheism can produce perpetual 
motion, and not till then, they may expect to be credited. 

The natural state of matter, as to place, is a state of rest. Mo- 
tion or change of place, is the effect of an external cause acting 
upon matter. As to that faculty of matter that is called gravita- 
tion, it is the influence which two or more bodies have recipro- 
cally on each other to unite and be at rest. Every thing which 
has hitherto been discovered with respect to the motion of the 
planets in the system, relates only to the laws by which motion 
acts, and not to the cause of motion. Gravitation, so far from be- 
ing the cause of motion to the planets that compose the solar sys- 
tem, would be the destruction of the solar system, were revolu- 
tionary motion to cease ; for as the action of spinning upholds a 
top, the revolutionary motion upholds the planets in their orbits, 
and prevents them from gravitating and forming one mass with 
the sun. In one sense of the word, philosophy knows, and Athe- 
ism says, that matter is in perpetual motion. But motion here 
refers to the sfate of matter, and that only on the surface of the 
earth. It is either decomposition, which is continually destroying 
the form of bodies of matter, or re-composition, which renews that 
matter in the same or another form, as the decomposition of ani- 
mal or vegetable substances enter into the composition of other 
bodies. But the motion that upholds the solar system is of an 
entire different kind, and is not a property of matter. It operates 
also to an entire different effect. It operates to perpetual preser- 
vation, and to prevent any change in the state of the system. 

Giving then to matter all the properties which philosophy knows 
it has, or all that Atheism ascribes to it, and can prove, and even 
supposing matter to be eternal, it will not account for the system 
of the universe, or of the solar system, because it will not account 
for motion, and it is motion that preserves it. When, therefore, 
we discover a circumstance of such immense importance, that 
without it the universe could not exist, and for which neither mat- 
ter, nor any, nor-all the properties of matter cannot account ; we 
are by necessity forced into the rational and comfortable belief 
of the existence of a cause superior to matter, and that cause man 
calls God. 

As to that which is called nature, it is no other than the laws 
by which motion and action of every kind, with respect to unin- 



188 



DISCOURSE TO THE SOCIETY 



teliigible matter is regulated. And when we speak of looking 
through nature up to nature's God, we speak philosophically the 
same rational language as when we speak of looking through hu- 
man laws up to the power that ordained them. 

God is the power or first cause, nature is the law, and matter is 
the subject acted upon. 

But infidelity, by ascribing every phenomenon to properties of 
matter, conceives a system for which it cannot account, and yet 
it pretends to demonstration. It reasons from what it sees on the 
surface of the earth, but it does not carry itself on the solar sys- 
tem existing by motion. It sees upon the surface a perpetual 
decomposition and recomposition of matter. It sees that an oak 
produces auracorn, an acorn an oak, a bird an egg, an egg a bird, 
and so on. In things of this kind it sees something which it calls 
natural cause, but none of the causes it sees is the cause of that 
motion which preserves the solar system. 

Let us contemplate this wonderful and stupendous system con- 
sisting of matter and existing by motion. It is not matter in a 
state of rest, nor in a state of decomposition or recomposition. It 
is matter systematized in perpetual orbicular or circular motion. 
As a system that motion is the life of it, as animation is life to an 
animal body ; deprive the system of motion, and, as a system, it . 
must expire. Who then breathed into the system the life of mo- 
tion? What power impelled the planets to move, since motion is 
not a property of the matter of which theyare composed ? If we 
contemplate the immense velocity of this motion, our wonder be- 
comes increased, and our adoration enlarges itself in the same 
proportion. To instance only one of the planets, that of the earth 
we inhabit, its distance from the sun, the centre of the orbits of 
all the planets, is, according to observations of the transit of the 
planet Yenus, about one hundred million miles ; consequently, the 
diameter of the orbit or circle in which the earth moves round the 
sun, is double that distance ; and the measure of the circumfer- 
ence of the orbit, taken as three times its diameter, is six hundred 
million miles. The earth performs this voyage in 365 days and 
some hours, and consequently moves at the rate of more than one 
million six hundred thousand miles every twenty-four hours. 

Where will infidelity, where will Atheism find cause for this 
astonishing velocity of motion, never ceasing, never varying, and 
which is the preservation of the earth in its orbit ? It is not by 
reasoning from an acorn to an oak, or from any change in the 
state of matter on the surface of the earth, that this can be ac- 
counted for. Its cause is not to be found in matter, nor in any 
thing we call nature. The Atheist who affects to reason, and 
the fanatic who rejects reason, plunge themselves alike into in- 
extricable difficulties. The one perverts the sublime and en- 
lightening study of natural philosophy into a deformity of absur- 
dities by not reasoning to the end. The other loses himself in 



OF THEOPH1LANTHROPISTS. 



189 



the obscurity of metaphysical theories, and dishonours the Crea- 
tor, by treating the study of his works with contempt. The one 
is a half-rational of whom there is some hope, the other a vision- 
ary to whom we must be charitable. 

When at first thought we think of a Creator, our ideas appear . 
to us undefined and confused ; but if we reason philosophically, 
those ideas can be easily arranged and simplified. It is a Being 
whose power is equal to his will. Observe the nature of the will of 
man. It is of an infinite quality. We cannot conceive the pos- 
sibility of limits to the will. Observe on the other hand, how 
exceedingly limited is his power of acting compared with the na- 
ture of his will. Suppose the power equal to the Will, and man 
would be a God. He would will himself eternal, and be so. He 
could will a creation and could make it. In this progressive rea- 
soning, we see in the nature of the will of man, half of that which 
we conceive in thinking of God ; add the other half, and we have 
the whole idea of a being who could make the universe, and sus- 
tain it by perpetual motion ; because he could create that motion. 

We know nothing of the capacity of the will of animals, but we 
know a great deal of the difference of their powers. For ex- 
ample, how numerous are the degrees, and how immense is the 
difference of power, from a mite to a man. Since then every 
thing we see below us shows a progression of power, where is 
the difficulty in supposing that there is, at the summit of all things, 
a Being in whom an infinity of power unites with the infinity of 
the will. When this simple idea presents itself to our mind, we 
have the idea of a perfect Being that man calls God. 

It is comfortable to live under the belief of the existence of an 
infinitely protecting power ; and it is an addition to that comfort 
to know, that such a belief is not a mere conceit of the imagina- 
tion, as many of the theories that are called religious are ; nor 
a belief founded only on tradition or received opinion, but is a 
belief deducible by the action of reason upon the things that 
compose the system of the universe ; a belief arising out of visi- 
ble facts : and so demonstrable is the truth of this belief, that if 
no such belief had existed, the persons who now controvert it, 
would have been the persons who would have produced and 
propagated it, because, by beginning to reason they would have 
been led on to reason progressively to the end, and thereby have 
discovered that matter and all the properties it has, will not ac- 
count for the system of the universe, and that there must neces- 
sarily be a superior cause. 

It was the- excess to which imaginary systems of religion had 
been carried, and the intolerance, persecutions, burnings, and 
massacres, they occasioned, that first induced certain persons to 
propagate infidelity ; thinking, that upon the whole it was better 
not to believe at all, than to believe a multitude of things and 
eomplicated creeds, that occasioned so much mischief in the 
world. But those days are past ; persecution has ceased, and 



DISCOURSE, &,C. 



he antidote then set up against it has no longer even the shadow 
of an apology. We profess and we proclaim in peace, the pure, 
unmixed, comfortable, and rational belief of a God, as manifested 
to us in the universe. We do this without any apprehension of 
that belief being made a cause of persecution, as other beliefs 
have been, or of suffering persecution ourselves. To God, and 
not to man, are all men to account for their belief. 

It has been well observed at the first institution of this society, 
that the dogmas it professes to believe, are from the commence- 
ment of the world ; that they are novelties, but are confessedly 
the basis of all systems of religion, however numerous and con- 
tradictory they may be. All men in the outset of the religion 
they profess are Theophilanthropists. It is impossible to form any 
system of religion without building upon those principles, and 
therefore they are not sectarian principles, unless we suppose 
a sect composed of all the world. 

I have said in the course of this .discourse, that the study of 
natural philosophy is a divine study, because it is the study of 
the works of God in the Creation. If we consider theology upon 
this ground, what an extensive field of improvement in things 
both divine and human opens itself before us. Ail the princi- 
ples of science are of divine origin. It was not man that invent- 
ed the principles on which astronomy, and every branch of 
mathematics are founded and studied. It was not man that gave 
properties to the circle and triangle. Those principles are eter- 
nal and immutable. We see in them the unchangeable nature 
of the Divinity. We see in them immortality, and immortality 
existing after the material figures that express those properties 
are dissolved in dust. 

The society is at present in its infancy, and its means are 
small ; but I wish to hold in view the subject I allude to, and in- 
stead of teaching the philosophical branches of learning as or- 
namental accomplishments only, as they have hitherto been 
taught, to teach them in a manner that shall combine theological 
knowledge with scientific instruction ; to do this to the best ad- 
vantage, some instruments will be necessary for the purpose of 
explanation, of which the society is not yet possessed. But as the 
views of the society extend to public good, as well as to that of 
the individual, and as its principles can have no enemies, means 
may be devised to procure them. 

If we unite to the present instruction, a series of lectures on 
the ground I have mentioned, we shall, in the first place, render 
theology the most delightful and entertaining of all studies. In 
the next place, we shall give scientific instruction to those who 
could not otherwise obtain it. The mechanic of every profession 
will there be taught the mathematical principles necessary to 
render him a proficient in his art. The cultivator will there see 
developed, the principles of vegetation ; while, at the same time, 
they will be led to see the hand of God in all these thin^ 



LETTER TO CAMILLE JOSDAW 5 

ONE OF THE COUNCIL OF FIVE HUNDRED, 

OCCASIONED BY HIS REPORT ON THE PRIESTS, PUBLIC WOR- 
SHIP, AND THE BELLS. 



Citizen Representative, 

AS every thing in your report, relating to what you call wor- 
ship, connects itself with the books called the Scriptures, I begin 
with a quotation therefrom. It may serve to give us some idea 
of the fanciful origin and fabrication of those books. 2 Chroni- 
cles, chap, xxxiv. ver. 14, &c. "Hilkiah, the priest, found the 
book of the law of the Lord given by Moses. And Hilkiah, the 
priest, said to Shaphan, the scribe, I have found the book of the 
law in the house of the Lord, and Hilkiah delivered the book to 
Shaphan. And Shaphan, the scribe, told the king (Josiah) say- 
ing.. Hilkiah, the priest, hath given me a book." 

This pretended finding was about a thousand years after the 
time that Moses is said to have lived. Before this pretended find- 
ing there was no such thing practised or known in the world as 
that which is called the law of Moses. This being the case, there 
is every apparent evidence, that the books called the books of 
Moses (and which make the first part of what are called the Scrip- 
tores) are forgeries contrived between a priest and a limb of the 
law,* Hilkiah, and Shaphan, the scribe, a thousand years after 
Moses is said to have been dead. 

Thus much for the first part of the Bible. Every other part is 
marked" with circumstances equally as suspicious. We ought, 
therefore, to be reverentially careful how we ascribe books as his 
word, of which there is no evidence, and against which there is 
abundant evidence to the contrary, and every cause to suspect im- 
position. 

In your report you speak continually of something by the name 
of worship, and you confine yourself to speak of one kind only, 
as if there were but one, and that one was unquestionably true 

The modes of worship are as various as the sects are numer- 
ous ; and amidst all this variety and multiplicity there is but one 
article of belief in which every religion in the world agrees. 
That article has universal sanction. It is the belief of a God, or 
what the Greeks described by the word Theism, and the Latins 
by that of Deism. Upon this one article have been erected all 

* It happens that Camille Jordan is a limb of the law. 



192 



LETTER TO CAMILLE JORDAN. 



the different superstructures of creeds and ceremonies continu- 
ally warring with each other that now exists or ever existed. 
But the men most and best informed upon the subject of theolo- 
gy rest themselves upon this universal article, and hold all the 
various superstructures erected thereon to be at least doubtful, 
if not altogether artificial. 

The intellectual part of religion is a private affair between 
every man and his Maker, and in which no third party has any 
right to interfere. The practical part consists in our doing good 
to each other. But since religion has- been made into a trade, 
the practical part has been made to consist of ceremonies perform- 
ed by men called Priests ; and the people have been amused 
with ceremonial shows, processions, and bells. * By devices of 
this kind true religion has been banished ; and such means have 
been found out to extract money even from the pockets of the 
poor, instead of contributing to their relief. 

* The precise date of the invention of bells cannot be traced. The ancients, it ap- 
pears from Martial, Juvenal, Suetonius and others, had an article named tintinuabula, 
(usually translated bell,) by which the Romans were summoned to their baths and pub- 
lic places. It seems most probable, that the description of bells now* used in churches, 
were invented about the year 400, and generally adopted before the commence- 
ment of the seventh century. Previous to their invention, however, sounding brass, 
and sometimes basins, were used ; and to the present da\ the Greek church have 
boards, or iron plates, full of holes, which they strike with a hammer, or mallet, to 
Bummon the priests and others to divine service. We may also remark, that in our 
own country, it was the custom in monasteries to visit every person's cell early in the 
morning, and knock on the door with a similar instrument, called the wakening mal- 
let — doubtless no very pleasing intrusion on the slumbers of the Monks. 

But, the use of bells, having been established, it was found that devils were ter- 
rified at the sound, and slunk in haste away ; in consequence of which it was thought 
necessary to baptize them in a solemn manner, which appears to have been first done 
by Pope John XII. A. D. 968. A record of this practice still exists in the Tom of 
Lincoln, and the great Torn at Oxford, &c. 

Having thus laid the foundation of superstitious veneration in the hearts of the com- 
mon people, it cannot be a matter of surprise, that they were soon used at rejoicings, 
and high festivals in the church (for the purpope of driving away any evil spirit which 
might be in the neighbourhood,) as well as on the arrival of any great personage, 
on which occasion the usual fee was one penny. 

One other custom remains to be explained, viz. tolling bells on the occasion of any 
person's death, a custom which, in the manner now practised, is totally different from 
its original institution. It appears to have been used as early ^s the 7th century, 
when bells were first generally used, and to have been denominated the soul bell, (as 
it signified the departing of the soul,) as also, the passing bell. Thus Wheatly tells 
us, " Our church, in imitation of the Saints of former ages, calls in the Minister and 
others who are at hand, to assist their brother in his last, extremity ; in order to this, 
she directs a bell should be tolled when any one is passing out of this life." Durand 
also says — " When any one is dying, bells must be tolled, that the people may put 
up their prayers for him ; let this be done twice for a woman, and thrice for a man. 
If for a clergyman, as many times as he had orders ; and at the conclusion, a peal 
on all the bells, to distinguish the quality of the person for whom the people are to put 
up their prayers." — From these passages it appears evident Jthat the bell was to be 
tolled before a person's decease rather than after, as at the present day ; and that 
die object was to obtain the prayers of all who heard it, for the repose of the soul of 
their departing neighbour. At first, when the tolling took piace after the person's 
decease, it was deemed superstitious, and was partially disused, which was found ma- 
terially to affect the revenue of the church. The priesthood having removed the ob- 
jection, bells were again tolled, upon payment of the customary fees. Editor 



LETTER TO CAMILLE JORDAN. 



193 



No man ought to make a living by religion. It is dishonest so 
to do. Religion is not an act that can be performed by proxy. 
One person cannot act religion for another. Every person must 
perform it for himself : and all that a priest can do is to take 
from him, he wants nothing but his money, and then to riot on 
his spoil and laugh at his credulity. 

The only people, as a professional sect of Christians, who pro- 
vide for the poor of their society, are people known by the name 
of Quakers. Those men have no priests. They assemble quiet- 
ly in their places of meetings and do not disturb their neighbours 
with shows and noise of bells. Religion does not unite itself to 
show and noise. True religion is without either! Where there 
is both there is no true religion. 

The first object for inquiry in all cases, more especially in 
matters of religious^ concern, is TRUTH. We ought to inquire 
into the truth of whatever we are taught to believe, and is it cer- 
tain that the books called the Scriptures stand, in this respect, 
in more than a doubtful predicament. They have been held in 
existence, and in a sort of credit among the common class of 
people, by art, terror and persecution. They have little or no 
credit among the ei lightened part, but they have been made the 
means of encumbering the world with a numerous priesthood, 
who have fattened on the labour of the people, and consumed the 
sustenance that ought to be applied to the widows and the poor. 

It is a want of feeling to talk of priests and bells whilst so many 
infants are perishing in the hospitals, and aged and infirm poor 
in the streets, from the want of necessaries. The abundance 
that France produces is sufficient for every want, if rightly ap- 
plied ; but priests and bells, like articles of luxury, ought to be 
the least articles of consideration. 

We talk of religion. Let us talk of truth ; for that which is 
not truth, is not worthy the name of religion. 

We see different parts of the world overspread with different 
books, each of which, though contradictory to the other, is said, 
by its partisans, to be of divine origin, and is made a rule of faith 
and practice. In countries under despotic governments, where 
inquiry is always forbidden, the people are condemned to believe 
as they have been taught by their priests. This was for many 
centuries the case in France ; but this link in the chain of slav- 
ery is happily broken by the revolution ; and, that it may never 
be rivetted again, let us employ a part of the liberty' we e;joy in 
scrutinizing into the truth. Let us leave behind us some monu- 
ment, that we have made the cause and honour of our Creator 

| an object of our care. If we. have been imposed upon by the 
terrors of government and the artifice of priests in matters of re- 

! ligion, let us do justice to our Creator by examining into the case. 

i His name is too sacred to be affixed to any thing which is fabu- 



194 



LETTER TO CAMILLE JORDAN 



lous ; and it is our duty to inquire whether we believe, or en- 
courage the people to believe, in fables or in facts. 

It would be a project worthy the situation we are in, to invite 
an inquiry of this kind. We have committees for various ob- 
jects ; and, among others, a committee for bells. We have in- 
stitutions, academies, and societies for various purposes ; but we 
have none for inquiring into historical truth in matters of religious 
concern. 

They show us certain books which they call the Holy Scrip- 
tures, the word of God, and other names of that kind ; but we 
ought to know what evidence there is for our believing them to be 
so, and at what time they originated, and in what manner. We 
know that men could make books, and we know that artifice and 
superstition could give them a name ; could call them sacred. 
But we ought to be careful that the name of our Creator be not 
abused. Let then all the evidence with respect to those books 
be made a subject of inquiry. If there be evidence to war- 
rant our belief of them, let us encourage the propagation of it ; 
but if not, let us be careful not to promote the cause of delusion 
and falsehood. 

I have already spoken of the Quakers — that they have na 
priests, no bells — and that they are remarkable for their care of 
the poor of their society. They are equally as remarkable for 
the education of their children. I am a descendant of a family 
of that profession ; my father was a Quaker ; and I presume I 
may be admitted an evidence of what I assert. The seeds of 
good principles, and the literary means of advancement in the 
world, are laid in early life. Instead, therefore, of consuming 
the substance of the nation upon priests, whose life at best is a 
life of idleness, let us think of providing for the education of those 
who have not the means of doing it themselves. One good 
school-master is of more use than a hundred priests. 

If we look back at what was the condition of France under the 
ancient regime, we cannot acquit the priests of corrupting the 
morals of the nation. Their pretended celibacy led them to car- 
ry debauchery and domestic infidelity into every family where 
they could gain admission ; and their blasphemous pretensions 
to forgive sins, encouraged the commission of them. Why has 
the Revolution of France been stained with crimes which the 
Revolution of the United States of America was not ? Men are 
physically the same in all countries: it is education that 
makes them different. Accustom a people to believe that priests, 
or any other class of men, can forgive sins, and you will have 
sins in abundance. 

I come now to speak more particularly to the object of your 
report. 

You claim a privilege iry mpatible with the constitution and 
with rights. The constitution protects equally, as it ought to do, 



LETTER TO CAMILLE JORDAN. 



195 



every profession of religion.*; it gives no exclusive privilege to 
any. The churches are the common property of all the people ; 
they are national goods, and cannot be given exclusively to any 
one profession, because the right doe.s not exist of giving to any 
one that which appertains to all. It would be consistent with 
right that the churches be sold, and the money arising therefrom 
be invested as a fund for the education of children of poor parents 
of every profession, and, if more than sufficient for this purpose, 
that the surplus be appropriated to the support of the aged poor. 
After this, every profession can erect its own place of worship, 
if it choose — support its own priests, if it choose to have any — or 
perform its worship without priests, as the Quakers do. 

As to bells, they are a public nuisance. If one profession is 
to have bells, another has^the right to use the instruments of the 
same kind, or any other noisy instrument. Some may choose 
to meet at the sound of cannon, another at the beat of drum, an- 
other at the sound of trumpets, and so on, until the whole be- 
comes a scene of general confusion. But if we permit ourselves 
to think of the state of the sick, and the many sleepless nights 
and days they undergo, we shall feel the impropriety of increas- 
ing their distress by the noise of bells, or any other noisy in- 
struments. 

Quiet and private domestic devotion neither offends nor in- 
commodes any body ; and the constitution has wisely guarded 
against the use of externals. Bells come under this description, 
and public procession still more so — Streets and highways are 
for the accommodation of persons following their several occu- 
pations, and no sectary has a right to incommode them — If any 
one has, every other has the same ; and the meeting of various 
and contradictory processions would be tumultuous. Those who 
formed the constitution had wisely reflected upon these cases : 
and, whilst they were careful to preserve the equal right of every 
one, they restrained every one from giving offence, or incommod- 
ing another. 

Men who, through a long and tumultuous scene have lived in 
retirement, as you have done, may think, when they arrive at 
power, that nothing is more easy than to put the world to rights 
in an instant ; they form to themselves gay ideas at the success 
of their projects ; but they forget to contemplate the difficulties 
that attend them, and the dangers with which they are pregnant. 
Alas ! nothing is so easy as to deceive one's self. Did all men 
think as you think, or as you say, your plan would need no ad- 
vocate, because it would have no opposer ; but there are millions 
j who think differently to you, and who are determined to be 
! neither the dupes nor the slaves of error or design, 
i It is your good fortune to arrive at power, when the sunshine 
j of prosperity is breathing forth after a long and stormy night. 
1 The firmness of your colleagues/ id of those you have succeed- 



196 



LETTER TO CAMILLE JORDAN. 



ed — the unabated energy of the Directory, and the unequalled 
bravery of the armies of the Republic, have made the way smooth 
and easy to you. If you look back at the difficulties that existed 
when the constitution commenced, you cannot but be confound- 
ed with admiration at the difference between that time and now. 
At that moment, the Directory were placed like the furlorn hope 
of an army, but you were in safe retirement. They occupied 
the post of honourable danger, and they have merited well of 
their country. 

You talk of justice and benevolence, but you begin at the 
wrong end. The defenders of your country, and the deplorable 
st ate of the poor, are objects of prior consideration to priests and 
bells and gaudy processions. 

You talk of peace, but your manner of talking of it embarras- 
ses the Directory in making it, and serves to prevent it. Had 
you been an actor in all the scenes of government from its com- 
mencement, you would have been too well informed to have 
brought forward projects that operate to encourage the enemy. 
When you arrived at a share in the government, you found every 
thing tending to a prosperous issue. A series of victories un- 
equalled in the world, and in the obtaining of which you had no 
share, preceded your arrival. Every enemy but one was sub- 
dued ; and that one (the Hanoverian government of England) 
deprived of every hope, and a bankrupt in all its resources, was 
suing for peace. In such a state of things, no new question that 
might tend to agitate and anarchize the interior, ought to have 
had place ; and the project you propose, tends directly to that end. 

Whilst France was a monarchy, and under the government of 
those things called kings and priests, England could always de- 
feat her ; but since France has RISEN TO BE A REPUBLIC, 
the Government of England crouches beneath her, so great 
is the difference between a government of kings and priests, and 
that which is founded on the system of representation. But, 
could the government of England find a way, under the sanction 
of your report, to inundate France with a flood of emigrant 
priests, she would find also the way to domineer as befoi*e ; she 
would retrieve her shattered finances at your expence, and the 
ringing of bells would be the tocsin of your downfall. 

Did peace consist in nothing but the cessation of war, it would 
not be difficult ; but the terms are yet to be arranged ; and those 
terms will be better or worse, in proportion as France and her 
councils be united or divided. That the government of England 
counts much upon your report, and upon others of a similar ten- 
dency, is what the writer of this letter, who knows that govern- 
ment well, has no doubt. You are but new on the theatre of 
government, and you ought to suspect yourself of misjudging ; 
the experience of those who have gone before you, should be of 
softie service to you. 



LETTER TO CAMILLE JORDAN. 197 

But if, in consequence of such measures as you propose, you 
put it out of the power of the Directory to make a good peace, 
and to accept of terms you would afterwards reprobate, it is your- 
selves that must bear the censure. 

You conclude your report by the following address to your 
colleagues : — . 

" Let us hasten, representatives of the people ! to affix to these 
tutelary laws the seal of our unanimous approbation. All our 
fellow-citizens will learn to cherish political liberty from the en- 
joyment of religious liberty : you will have broken the most 
powerful arm of your enemies ; you v/ill have surrounded this 
assembly with the most impregnant rampart — confidence, and 
the people's love. O ! my colle agues ! how desirable is that 
popularity which is the offspring of good laws ! What a conso- 
lation it will be to us hereafter, when returned to our own fire- 
sides, to heav from the mouths of our fellow-citizens, these sim- 
ple expressions — Blessings reward you, men of peace I you have 
restored to us our temples — our ministers — the liberty of adoring the 
God of our fathers : you have recalled harmony to our families — 
morality to our hearts : you have made us adore the legislature and 
respect all its laws /" 

Is it possible, citizen representative, that you can be serious in 
this address ? Were the lives of the priests under the ancient 
regime such as to justify any thing you say of them ? Were 
not all France convinced of their immorality? Were they not 
considered as the patrons of debauchery and domestic infidelity, 
and not as the patrons of morals ? What was their pretended 
celibacy but perpetual adultery ? What was their blasphemous 
pretensions to forgive sins, but an encouragement to the com- 
mission of them, and a love for their own ? Do you want to lead 
again into France all the vices of which they have been the 
patrons, and to overspread the republic with English pensioners! 
It is cheaper to corrupt than to conquer ; and the English gov- 
ernment, unable to conquer, will stoop to corrupt. Arrogance 
and meanness, though in appearance opposite, are vices of the 
same heart. 

Instead of concluding in the manner you have done, you ought 
rather to have said, 

" O ! my colleagues ! we are arrived at a glorious period — a 
period that promises more than we could have expected, and all 
that we could have wished. Let us hasten to take into consider- 
ation the honours and rewards due to our brave defenders. 
Let us hasten to give encouragement to agriculture and manu- 
factures, that commerce may reinstate itself, and our people 
have employment. Let us review the condition of the suffering 
poor, and wipe from our country the reproach of forgetting 
them. Let us devise means to establish schools of instruc- 
tion, that we may banish the ignorance that the ancient regime 

17* 



198 



LETTER TO CAMILLE JORDAN. 



of kings and priests had spread among the people. — Let us pro- 
pagate morality, unfettered by superstition — Let us cultivate jus- 
tice and benevolence, that the God of our fathers may bless us. 
The helpless infant and the aged poor cry to us to remember 
them — Let not wretchedness be seen in our streets — Let France 
exhibit to the world- the glorious example of expelling ignorance 
and misery together. 

" Let these, my virtuous colleagues ! be the subject of our care, 
that, when we return among our fellow-citizens, they may say, 
Worthy representatives ! you have done well. You have done jus- 
tice and honour to our brave defenders. You have encouraged agri- 
culture — cherished our decayed manufactures — given new life to 
commerce, and employment to our people. You have removed from 
our country the reproach of forgetting the poor — You have caused 
the cry of the orphan to cease — You have wiped the tear from the eye 
of the suffering mother — You have given comfort to the aged and in- 
firm — You have penetrated into the gloomy recesses of wretchedness, 
and have banished it. Welcome among us, ye brave and virtuous 
representatives i and may your example be followed by your success-* 
ors P } 

THOMAS PAINE. 

Parts y 1797 




AN 

OF THE 

PASSAGES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, 

QUOTED FROM THE OLD 

AND CALLED 

PROPHECIES CONCERNING JESUS CHRIST 



AN ESSAY ON DREAM. 

ALSO, 

AN APPENDIX, 

CONTAINING THE 

CONTRADICTORY DOCTRINES BETWEEN MATTHEW AND MARK 

AND MY 

PRIVATE THOUGHTS 0JYJ1 FUTURE STATE. 



PREFACE. 



TO THE MINISTERS AND PREACHERS OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 
OF RELIGION. 



It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to 
detect and expose delusion and error. But nature has not given 
to every one a talent for the purpose ; and among those to whom 
such a talent is given, there is often a want of disposition or of 
courage to do it. 

The world, or more properly speaking, that small part of it 
called Christendom, or the Christian World, has been amused for 
more than a thousand years with accounts of Prophecies in the 
Old Testament, about the coming of the person called Jesus 
Christ, and thousands of sermons have been preached, and vol- 
umes written, to make man believe it. 

In the following treatise I have examined all the passages in 
the New Testament, quoted from the Old, and called prophecies 
concerning Jesus Christ, and I find no such thing as a prophecy 
of any such person, and I deny there are any. The passages all 
relate to circumstances the Jewish nation was in at the time they 
were written or spoken, and not to any thing that was or was not 
to happen in the world several hundred years afterwards ; and I 
have shown what the circumstances were, to which the passages 
apply or refer. I have given chapter and verse for every thing 
I have said, and have not gone out of the books of the Old and 
New Testament for evidence that the passages are not prophe- 
cies of the person called Jesus Christ. 

The prejudice of unfounded belief, often degenerates into the 
prejudice of custom, and becomes, at last, rank hypocrisy. — 
When men, from custom or fashion, or any Worldly motive, pro- 
fess or pretend to believe what they do not believe, nor can give 
any reason for believing, they unship the helm of their morality ; 
and being no longer honest to their own minds, they feel no mo- 
ral difficulty in being unjust to others. It is from the influence 
of this vice, hypocrisy, that we see so many Church and Meet- 
ing-going professors and pretenders to religion, so full of trick 
and deceit in their dealings, and so loose in the performance of 
their engagements, that they are not to be trusted farther than 
the laws of the country will bind them. Morality has no hold 
on their minds, no restraint on their actions. 



202 



PREFACE, 



One set of preachers make salvation to consist in believing. 
They tell their congregations, that if they believe in Christ, their 
sins shall be forgiven. This, in the first place, is an encourage- 
ment to sin, in a similar manner as when a prodigal young fellow 
is told his father will pay all his debts, he runs into debt the fast- 
er, and becomes the more extravagant : Daddy, says he, pays all, 
and on he goes. Just so in the other case, Christ pays all, and 
on goes the sinner. 

In the next place, the doctrine these men preach is not true. 
The New Testament rests itself for credibility and testimony on 
what are called prophecies in the Old Testament, of the person 
called Jesus Christ ; and if there are no such thing as prophe- 
cies of any such person in the Old Testament, the New Testa- 
ment is a forgery of the councils of Nice and Lagdocia, and the 
faith founded thereon, delusion and falsehood.* 

Another set of preachers tell their congregations that God 
predestinated and selected from all eternity, a certain number to 
be saved, and a certain number to be damned eternally. If this 
were true, the day of Judgment is past : their preaching is in vain, 
and they had better work at some useful calling for their liveli- 
hood. 

This doctrine, also, like the former, hath a direct tendency to 
demoralize mankind. Can a bad man be reformed by telling him, 
that if he is one of those who was decreed to be damned before 
he was born, his reformation will do him no good ; and if he was 
decreed to be saved, he will be saved whether he believes it or 
not ; for this is the result of the doctrine. Such preaching and 
such preachers do injury to the moral world. They had better 
be at the plough. 

As in my political works my motive and object have been to 
give man an elevated sense of his own character, and free him 
from the slavish and superstitious absurdity of monarchy and he- 
reditary government, so in my publications on religious subjects 
my endeavours have been directed to bring man to a right use of 
the reason that God has given him ; to impress on him the great 
principles of divine morality, justice, mercy, and a benevolent 
disposition to all men, and to all creatures, and to inspire in him 
a spirit of trust, confidence and consolation in his Creator, un- 
shackled by the fables of books pretending to be the ivord of God. 

THOMAS PAINE. 

* The councils of Nice and Laodocia were held about 350 years after the time 
Christ is said to have lived ; and the books that now compose the New Testament, 
were then voted for by Yeas and nays, as we now vote a law. A great many that 
were offered had a majority of nays, and were rejected. This is the way the New 
Testament came into being. 



APT ESSAY OJT DREAM. 



AS a great deal is said in the New Testament about dreams, it 
is first necessary to explain the nature of dream, and to show by 
what operation of the mind a dream is produced during sleep. 
When this is understood we shall be the better enabled to judge 
whether any reliance can be placed upon them; and consequently, 
whether the several matters in the New Testament related of 
dreams deserve the credit which the writers of that book and 
priests and commentators ascribe to them. 

In order to understand the nature of dreams, or of that which 
passes in ideal vision during a state of sleep, it is first necessary 
to understand the composition and decomposition of the human 
mind. 

The three great faculties of the mind are Imagination, Judg- 
ment, and Memory. Every action of the mind comes under one 
or other of these faculties. In a state of wakefulness, as in the 
day-time, these three faculties are all active ; but that is seldom 
the case in sleep, and never perfectly; and this is the cause that 
our dreams are not so Tegular and rational as our waking 
thoughts. 

The seat of that collection of powers or faculties, that consti- 
tute what is called the mind, is in the brain. There is not, and 
cannot be, any visible demonstration of this anatomically, but ac- 
cidents happening to living persons, show it to be so. An injury 
clone to the brain by a fracture of the skull will sometimes change 
a wise man into a childish idiot ; a being without mind. But so 
careful has nature been of that sanctum sanctorum of man, the 
brain, that of all the external accidents to which humanity is sub- 
ject, this happens the most seldom. But we often see it happen- 
ing by long and habitual intemperance. 

Whether those three faculties occupy distinct apartments of the 
brain, is known only to that Almighty power that formed and 
organized it. We can see the external effects of muscular mo- 
tion in all the members of the body, though its primum mobile, or 
first moving cause, is unknown to man. Our external motions 
are sometimes the effect of intention, and sometimes not. If we 
are sitting and intend to rise, or standing and intend to sit, or to 
walk, the limbs obey that intention as if they heard the order 
given. But we make a thousand motions every day, and that as 
well waking as sleeping, that have no prior intention to direct 



204 



AN ESSAY ON DREAM. 



them. Each member acts as if it had a will or mind of its own. 
Man governs the whole when he pleases to govern, but in the 
interims the several parts, like little suburbs, govern themselves 
without consulting the sovereign. 

But all these motions, whatever be the generating cause, are 
external and visible. But with respect to the brain, no ocular 
observation can be made upon it. All is mystery ; all is darkness 
in that womb of thought. 

Whether the brain is a mass of matter in continual rest ; whe- 
ther it has a vibrating pulsative motion, or a heaving and falling 
motion, like matter in fermentation ; whether different parts of 
the brain have different motions according to the faculty that is 
employed, be it the imagination, the judgment, or the memory, 
man knows nothing of it. He knows not the cause of his own 
wit. His own brain conceals it from him. 

Comparing invisible by visible things, as metaphysical can 
sometimes be compared to physical things, the operations of those 
distinct and several faculties have some resemblance to the me- 
chanism of a watch. The main spring which puts all in motion, 
corresponds to the imagination ; the pendulum or balance, which 
corrects and regulates that motion, corresponds to the judgment ; 
and the hand and dial, like the memory, record the operations. 

Now in proportion as these several faculties sleep, slumber, or 
keep awake, during the continuance of a dream, in that propor- 
tion the dream will be reasonable or frantic, remembered or for- 
gotten. 

If there is any faculty in mental man that never sleeps, it is 
that volatile thing the imagination: the case is different with the 
judgment and memory. The sedate and sober constitution of 
Ahe judgment easily disposes it to rest ; and as to the memory, 
it records in silence, and is active only when it is called upon. 

That the judgment soon goes to sleep may be perceived by our 
sometimes beginning to dream before we are fully asleep our- 
selves. Some random thought runs in the mind, and we start, as 
it were, into recollection that we are dreaming between sleeping 
and waking. 

If the judgment sleeps whilst the imagination keeps awake, the 
dream will be a riotous assemblage of mis-shapen images and 
ranting ideas, and the more active the imagination is, the wilder 
the dream will be. The most inconsistent and the most impossi- 
ble things will appear right ; because that faculty, whose prov- 
ince it is to keep order, is in a state of absence. The master of 
Ihe school is gone out, and the boys are in an uproar. 

If the memory sleeps, we shall have no other knowledge of the 
dream than that we have dreamt, without knowing what it was 
about. In this case it is sensation, rather than recollection, that 
;fccts. The dream has given us some sense of pain or trouble, and 
we feel it as a hurt, rather than remember it as a vision. 



AN* ESSAY ON DREAM. 



205 



If memory only slumbers, we shall have a faint remembrance 
of the dream, and after a few minutes it will sometimes happen 
that the principal passages of the dream will occur to us more 
folly. The cause of this is, that the memory will sometimes 
continue slumbering or sleeping after we are awake ourselves, 
and that so fully, that it may, and sometimes does happen, 
that we do not immediately recollect where we are, nor what we 
have been about, or have to do. But when the memory starts 
into wakefulness, it brings the knowledge of these things back 
upon us, like a flood of light, and sometimes the dream with it. 

But the most curious circumstance of the mind in a state of 
dream, is the power it has to become the agent of every person, 
character and thing, of which it dreams. It carries on conver- 
sation with several, asks questions, hears answers, gives and re- 
ceives information, and it acts all these parts itself. 

But however various and eccentric the imagination may be in 
the creation of images and ideas, it cannot supply the place of 
memory, with respect to things that are forgotten when we are 
awake. For example, if we have forgotten the name of a per 
eon, and dream of seeing him and asking him his name, he can- 
not tell it ; for it is ourselves asking ourselves the question. 

But though the imagination cannot supply the place of real 
memory, it has the wild faculty of counterfeiting memory. It 
dreams of persons it never knew, and talks with them as if it re- 
membered them as old acquaintances. It relates circumstances 
that never happened, and tells them as if they had happened. It 
goes to places that never existed, and knows where all the streets 
and houses are, as if it had been there before. The scenes it cre- 
ates often appear as scenes remembered. It will sometimes act 
a dream within a dream, and, in the delusion of dreaming, tell a 
dream it never dreamed, and tell it as if it was from memory. It 
may also be remarked, that the imagination in a dream, has no 
idea of time, as time. It counts only by circumstances ; and if a 
succession of circumstances pass in a dream that would require 
a great length of time to accomplish them, it will appear to the 
dreamer that a length of time equal thereto has passed also. 

As this is the state of the mind in dream, it may rationally be 
said that every person is mad once in twenty-four hours, for were 
he to act in the day as he dreams in the night, he would be con- 
fined for a lunatic. In a state of wakefulness, those three facul- 
ties being all alive, and acting in union, constitute the rational 
man. In dreams it is otherwise, and therefore that state which 
is called insanity, appears to be no other than a disunion of those 
faculties, and a cessation of the judgment, during wakefulness, 
that we so often experience during sleep ; and idiocity, into 
which some persons have fallen, is that cessation of all the facul- 
ties of which we can be sensible, when we happen to wake before 
our memory. 

18 



206 



AN ESSAY ON DREAM. 



In this view of the mind, how absurd is it to place reliance 
upon dreams, and how much more absurd to make them a foun- 
dation for religion ; yet the belief that Jesus Christ is the Son 
of God, begotten by the Holy Ghost, a being never heard of be- 
fore, stands on the story of an old man's dream. " And behold 
the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Josephs 
thou son of David, fear not thou to take unto thee Mary thy wife, 
for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost" — Matt, 
ch. i. ver. 20. 

After this we have the childish stories of three or four other 
dreams ; about Joseph going into Egypt ; about his coming back 
again ; about this, and about that, and this story of dreams has 
thrown Europe into a dream for more than a thousand years. All 
the efforts that nature, reason, and conscience have made to 
awaken man from it, have been ascribed by priestcraft and su- 
perstition to the workings of the devil, and had it not been for the 
American revolution, which by establishing the universal right of 
conscience, first opened the way to free discussion, and for the 
French revolution which followed, this religion of dreams had 
continued to be preached, and that after it had ceased to be be- 
lieved. Those who preached it and did not believe it, still be- 
lieved the delusion necessary. They were not bold enough to 
be honest, nor honest enough to be bold. 

[Every new religion, like a new play, requires a new appara- 
tus of dresses and machinery, to fit the new characters it creates. 
The story of Christ in the New Testament brings a new being 
upon the stage, which it calls the Holy Ghost ; and the story of 
Abraham, the father of the Jews, in the Old Testament, gives 
existence to a new order of beings it calls Angels. — There was 
no Holy Ghost before the time of Christ, nor Angels before the 
time of Abraham. — We hear nothing of these winged gentlemen, 
till more than two thousand years, according to the Bible chron- 
ology, from the time they say the heavens, the earth, and all 
therein were made : — After this, they hop about as thick as birds 
in a grove : — The first we hear of pays his addresses to Hagar 
in the wilderness ; then three of them visit Sarah ; another wres- 
tles a fall with Jacob ; and these birds of passage having found 
their way to earth and back, are continually coming and going. 
They eat and drink, and up again to heaven. — What they do 
with the food they carry away, the Bible does not teli us. — Per- 
haps they do as the birds do. =fc # # # 

One would think that a system loaded with such gross and vul- 
gar absurdities as scripture religion is, could never have obtained 
credit ; yet we have seen what priestcraft and fanaticism could 
do, and credulity believe. 

From angels in the Old Testament, we get to prophets, to 
witches, to seers of visions, and dreamers of dreams, and some- 
times we are told, as in 2 Sam. chap. ix. ver. 15, that God whis- 



AN ESSAY ON DREAM, 



207 



pers in the ear — At other times we are not told how the impulse 
was given, or whether sleeping or waking — In 2 Sam. chap. xxiv. 
ver. 1, it is said, " Ayid again the anger of the Lord was kindled 
against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, go number 
Israel and Judah." — And in 1 Chro. chap. xxi. ver. 1, when the 
same story is again related, it is said, 6 and Satan stood up against 
Israel , and moved David to number Israel." 

Whether this was done sleeping or waking, we are not told, 
but it seems that David, whom they call "a man after God's own 
heart," did not know by what spirit he was moved ; and as to 
the men called inspired penmen, they agree so well about the 
matter, that in one book they say that it was God, and in the 
other that it was the Devil. 

The idea that writers of the Old Testament had of a God was 
boisterous, contemptible and vulgar. — They make him the Mars 
of the Jews, the fighting God of Israel, the conjuring God of 
their Priests and Prophets. — They tell as many fables of him as 
the Greeks told of Hercules. * # * * * * 

They make their God to say exultingly, " I will get me honour 
upon Pharaoh, and upon his Host, upon his Chariots and upon his 
Horsemen." — And that he may keep his word, they make him set 
a trap in the Red Sea, in the dead of the night, for Pharaoh, his 
host, and his horses, and drown them as a rat-catcher would do 
so many rats — Great honour indeed ! the story of Jack the Giant- 
killer is better told ! 

They pit him against the Egyptian magicians to conjure with 
him ; the three first essays are a dead match — Each party turns 
his rod into a serpent, the rivers into blood, and creates frogs; but 
upon the fourth, the God of the Israelits obtains the laurel, he 
covers them all over with lice! — The Egyptian magicians cannot 
do the same, and this lousy triumph proclaims the victory ! 

They make their God to rain fire and brimstone upon Sodom 
^.nd Gomorrah, and belch fire and smoke Upon mount Sinai, as 
if he was the Pluto of the lower regions. They make him salt 
up Lot's wife like pickled pork ; they make him pass like Shak- 
speare's Queen Mab into the brain of their priests, prophets, and 
propheteses, and tickle them into dreams, and after making him 
play all kind of tricks, they confound him with Satan, and leave 
us at a loss to know what God they meant ! 

This is the descriptive God of the Old Testament ; and as to 
the New, though the authors of it have varied the scene, they 
have continued the vulgarity. 

Is man ever to be the dupe of priestcraft, the slave of supersti- 
tion? Is he never to have just ideas of his Creator? It is better , 
not to believe there is a God, than to believe of him falsely. ? 
When we behold the mighty universe that surrounds us, and dart 
our contemplation into the eternity of space, filled with innumer- 
able orbs, revolving in eternal harmony, how paltry must the 



208 



AN ESSAY ON DREAM. 



tales of the Old and New Testaments, profanely called the word 
of God, appear to thoughtful man! The stupendous wisdom, 
and unerring order, that reign and govern throughout this won- 
drous whole, and call us to reflection, put to shame the Bible ! — 
The God of eternity, and of all that is real, is not the God of pass- 
ing dreams, and shadows of man's imagination ! The God of 
truth, is not the God of fable ; the belief of a God begotten and 

a God crucified, is a God blasphemed It is making a profane 

use of reason.]* 

I shall conclude this Essay on Dream with the two first yersea 
of the 34th chapter of Ecclesiasticus, one of the books of the 
Apocrypha. 

" The hopes of a man void of understanding are vain and false ; 
and dreams lift up fools — Whoso regardeth dreams is like htm thai 
catcheth at a shadow, and followeth after the wind" 

I now proceed to an examination of the passages in the Bible, 
called prophecies of the coming of Christ, and to show there are 
no prophecies of any such person. That the passages clandes- 
tinely styled prophecies are not prophecies, and that they refer 
to circumstances the Jewish nation was in at the time they were 
written or spoken, and not to any distance of future time or per- 
son. 

* Mr. Paine must have been in an ill humour when he wrote the passage inclosed in 
crotchets; and probably on reviewing it, and discovering exceptionable clauses, was 
induced to reject the whole, as it does not appear in the edition published by himself. 
But having obtained the original in the hand writing of Mr. P. and deeming some of 
the remarks worthy of bei ng preserved, I have thought proper to restore the passage, 
with the exception of the objectionable parts. — Editor, 



AN 

EXAMINATION 

OF THE 

PASSAGES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, 

QUOTED FROM THE OLD, AND CALLED PROPHECIES OF THE COMING OF 

JESUS CHRIST. 



[This work was first published by Mr. Paine, at New-York, in 
1807, and was the last of his writings edited by himself. It is 
evidently extracted from his answer to the bishop of Llandaff, or 
from his third part of the Age of Reason, both of which, it ap- 
pears by his will, he left in manuscript. The term, " The Bish- 
op" occurs in this examination six times without designating what 
bishop is meant. Of all the replies to his second part of the Age 
of Reason, that of bishop Watson was the only one to which he 
paid particular attention ; and he is, no doubt, the person here 
alluded to. Bishop Watson's apology for the Bible had been 
published some years before Mr. P. left France, and the latter 
composed his answer to it, and also his third part of the Age of 
Reason, while in that country. 

When Mr. Paine arrived in America, and found that liberal 
opinions on religion were in disrepute, through the influence of 
hypocrisy and superstition, he declined publishing the entire of 
the works which he had prepared ; observing that " an author 
might lose the credit he had acquired by writing too much." He 
however gave to the public the examination before us, in a pam- 
phlet form. But the apathy whicn appeared to prevail at that 
time in regard to religious inquiry, fully determined him to dis- 
continue the publication of his theological writings. In this case, 
taking only a portion of one of the works before mentioned, he 
chose a title adapted to the particular part selected.] 

The passages called Prophecies of, or concerning Jesus Christ, 
in the old Testament, may be classed under the two following 
heads : — 

First, those referred to in the four books of the New Testa- 
ment, called the four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and 
John. 

Secondly, those which translators and commentators have, of 
18* 



210 



EXAMINATION OF 



their own imagination, erected into prophecies, and dubbed with 
that title at the head of the several chapters of the Old Testa- 
ment. Of these it is scarcely worth while to waste time, ink, 
and paper upon ; I shall therefore confine myself chiefly to those 
referred to in the aforesaid four books of the New Testament. 
If I show that these are not prophecies of the person called Je- 
sus Christ, nor have reference to any such person, it will be per- 
fectly needless to combat those which translators or the Church 
have invented, and for which they had no other authority than 
their own imagination. 

I begin with the book called the Gospel according to St. Mat- 
thew. 

In the first chap. ver. 18, it is said, " Now the birth of Jesus 
Christ was on this wise ; when his mother Mary was espoused to Jo- 
seph, before they came together, she was found with child by 
the holy ghost. " — This is going a little too fast ; because to 
make this verse agree with the next it should have said no more 
than that she ivas found with child ; for the next verse says, " Then 
Joseph her husband being a just man, and not willing to make her a 
public example, was minded to put her away privily." — Consequent- 
ly Joseph had found out no more than that she was with child, 
and he knew it was not by himself. 

V. 20. " And while he thought ofjhese things (that is, whether 
he should put her away privily, or make a public example of her,) 
behold the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream (that is, 
Joseph dreamed that an angel appeared unto him) saying, Joseph, 
thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that 
which is conceived inker is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring 
forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus ; for he shall save 
his people from their sins" 

Now, without entering into any discussion upon the merits or 
demerits of the account here given, it is proper to observe, that 
it has no higher authority than that of a dream ; for it is impos- 
sible for a man to behold any thing in a dream, but that which ho 
dreams of. I ask not, therefore, whether Joseph (if there was 
such a man) had such a dream or not ; because, admitting he had, 
it proves nothing. So wonderful and rational is the faculty of 
the mind in dreams, that it acts the part of all the characters its 
imagination creates, and what it thinks it hears from any of them/ 
is no other than what the roving rapidity of its own imagination 
invents. It is therefore nothing to me what Joseph dreamed of; 
whether of the fidelity or infidelity of his wife. — I pay no regard 
to my own dreams, and I should be weak indeed to put faith in 
the dreams of another. 

The verses that follow those I have quoted, are the words of the 
writer of the book of Matthew. " Now (says he) all this (that 
is, all this dreaming and this pregnancy) was done that it might 
be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the Prophet, saying, 



THE PROPHECIES. 



211 



€t Behold a vwgin shall be with child , and shall bring forth a son, 
and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted, is } 
God with us." 

This passage is in Isaiah, chap. vii. ver. 14, and the writer of 
the book of Matthew endeavours to make his readers believe that 
this passage is a prophecy of the person called Jesus Christ. It 
is no such thing — and I go to show it is not. But it is first ne- 
cessary that I explain the occasion of these words being spoken 
by Isaiah ; the reader will then easily perceive, that so far from 
their being a prophecy of Jesus Christ, they have not the least 
reference to such a person, or any thing that could happen in the 
time that Christ is said to have lived — which was about seven 
hundred years after the time of Isaiah. The case is this : 

On the death of Solomon the Jewish nation split into two mon- 
archies ; one called the kingdom of Judah, the capital of which 
was Jerusalem ; the other the kingdom of Israel, the capital of 
which was Samaria. The kingdom of Judah followed the line 
of David, and the kingdom of Israel that of Saul ; and these two 
rival monarchies frequently carried on fierce wars against each 
other. 

At the time A-haz was king- of Judah, which was in the time of 
Isaiah, Pekah was king of Israel : and Pekah joined himself to 
Rezin, king of Syria, to make war against Ahaz, king of Judah ; 
and these two kings marched a confederated and powerful army 
against Jerusalem. Ahaz and his people became alarmed at the 
danger, and " their hearts were moved as the trees of the wood are 
moved with the wind" Isaiah, chap. vii. ver. 3. 

In this perilous situation of things, Isaiah addressed himself to 
Ahaz, and assures him, in the name of the Lord (the cant phrase 
of all the prophets) that these two kings should not succeed 
against him ; and to assure him that this should be the case (the 
case was however directly contrary*) tells Ahaz to ask a sign of 
the Lord. This Ahaz declined doing, giving as a reason, that 
he would not tempt the Lord : upon which Isaiah, who pretends 
to be sent from God, says, ver. 14, "Therefore the Lord himself 
shall give you a sign, behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son 
— Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the 
evil and choose the good — For before the child shall know to re- 
fuse the evil and choose the good, the land which thou abhorrest 
shall be forsaken of both her kings" — meaning the king of Is- 
rael and the king of Syria, who were marching against him. 

* Chron. chap, xxviii. ver. 1st. Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to 
reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem, but he did not that which was right 
in the sight of the Lord. — Ver. 5. Wherefore the Lord his God delivered him into 
the hand of the king of Syria, and they smote him, and carried away a great multi- 
tude of them captive and brought them to Damascus : and he was also delivered into 
the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter. 

Ver. 6. And Pekah (king of Israel) slew in Judah an hundred and twenty thou- 
sand in one day. — Ver. 8. And the children of Israel carried away captive of their 
brethren two hundred thousand women, sons and daughters 



212 



EXAMINATION OP 



Here then is the sign, which was to be the birth of a child, 
and that child a son ; and here also is the time limited for the ac- 
complishment of the sign, namely, before the child should know 
to refuse the evil and choose the good. 

The thing, therefore, to be a sign of success to Ahaz must be 
something that would take place before the event of the battle 
then pending between him and the two kings could be 4mown. A 
thing to be a sign must precede the thing signified. The sign of 
rain must be before the rain. 

It would have been mockery and insulting nonsense for Isaiah 
to have assured Ahaz as a sign that these two kings should not 
prevail against him ; that a child should be born seven hundred 
years after he was dead ; and that before the child so born 
should know to refuse the evil and choose the good, he, Ahaz, 
should be delivered from the danger he was then immediately 
threatened with. 

But the case is, that the child of which Isaiah speaks was his 
own child) with which his wife or his mistress was then pregnant ; 
for he says in the next chapter, v. 2, u Jlnd I took unto me faithful 
witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeb- 
erechiah ; and I went unto the prophetess, and she conceived and 
bear a son and he says at ver. 18 of the same chapter, " Be- 
hold 1 and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs 
and for ivonders in Israel." 

It may not be improper here to observe, that the word trans- 
lated a virgin in Isaiah, does not signify a virgin in Hebrew, but 
merely a young woman. The tense also is falsified in the trans- 
lation. Levi gives the Hebrew text of the 14th ver. of the 7th 
chap, of Isaiah, and the translation in English with it — " BeJwld 
a young woman is with child and beareth a sow." The expression, 
says he, is in the present tense. This translation agrees with the 
other circumstances related of the birth of this child, which was 
to be a sign to Ahaz. But as the true translation could not have 
been imposed upon the world as a prophecy of a child to- be born 
seven hundred years afterwards, the Christian translators have 
falsified the original ; and instead of making Isaiah to say, be- 
hold a young woman is with child and beareth a son— they make 
him to say, behold a viigin shall conceive and bear a son. It is 
however only necessary for a person to read the 7th and 8th 
chapters of Isaiah, and he will be convinced that the passage in 
question is no prophecy of the person called Jesus Christ. I 
pass on to the second passage quoted from the Old Testament by 
the New, as a prophecy of Jesus Christ. 

Matthew, chap. ii. ver. 1. "Now when Jesus was born in 
Bethlehem of Judah, in the days of Herod the king, behold there 
came wise men from the east to Jerusalem — saying, where is he 
that is born king of the Jews ? for we have seen his star in the 
east, and are come to worship him. When Herod, the king, 



THE PROPHECIES. 



213 



heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him 
— and when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of 
the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should 
be born — and they said unto him, in Bethlehem, in the land of 
Judea ; for thus it is written by the prophet — and thou Bethlehem, 
in the land of Judea, art tJwu not the least among the Princes of Ju- 
dea, for out of thee shall come a Governor that shall rule my people 
Israel." This passage is in Micah, chap. v. ver. 2. 

I pass over the absurdity of seeing and following a star in the 
day-time, as a man would a Will ivith the ivisp, or a candle and. lan- 
tern at night ; and also that of seeing it in the east, when them- 
selves came from the east ; for could such a thing be seen at all 
to serve them for a guide, it must be in the west to them. I 
confine myself solely to the passage called a prophecy of Jesus 
Christ. 

The book of Micah, in the passage above quoted, chap. v. vei 
2, is speaking of some person without mentioning his name, 
from whom some great achievements were expected ; but the de- 
scription he gives of this person at the 5th verse, proves evident- 
ly that it is not Jesus Christ, for he says at the 5th ver. " and this 
man shall be the peace when the Assyrian shall come into our 
land, and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise 
up against him (thaft is, against the Assyrians) seven shepherds 
and eight principal men — v. 6. And they shall waste the land 
of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod on the. en- 
trance thereof ; thus shall He (the person spoken of at the head 
of the second verse) deliver us from the Assyrian when he com- 
eth into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders." 

This is so evidently descriptive of a military chief, that it can- 
not be applied to Christ without outraging the character they 
pretend to give us of him. Besides which, the circumstances 
of the times here spoken of, and those of the times in which 
Christ is said to have lived, are in contradiction to each other. 
It was the Romans, and not the Assyrians, that had conquered 
and were in the land of Judea, and trod in their palaces when 
Christ was born, and when he died, and so far from his driving 
them out, it was they who signed the warrant for his execution, 
and he suffered under it. 

Having thus shown that this is no prophecy of Jesus Christ, I 
pass on to the third passage quoted from the Old Testament by 
the New, as a prophecy of him. 

This, like the first I have spoken of, is introduced by a dream. 
Joseph dreameth another dream, and dreameth that he seeth 
another angel. The account begins at the 13th ver. of 2d chap, 
of Matthew. 

" The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, say- 
ing, Arise, and take the young child and his mother and flee in- 
to Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word : For Heiod 



214 



EXAMINATION OF 



will seek the life of the young child to destroy him. When he 
arose he took the young child and his mother by night and de- 
parted into Egypt — and was there until the death of Herod, that 
it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the proph- 
et, saying, " Out of Egypt have I called my son." 

This passage is in the book of Hosea, chap. xi. ver. 1. The 
words are, " VVhen Israel was a child then I loved him and call- 
ed my son out of Egypt — As they called them, so they went from 
them, they sacrificed unto Baalam and burnt incense to graven 
images." 

This passage, falsely called a prophecy of Christ, refers to 
the children of Israel coming out of Egypt in the time of Pha- 
raoh, and to the idolatry they committed afterwards. To make 
it apply to Jesus Christ, he must then be the person who sacri- 
ficed unto Baalam and burnt incense to graven images, for the per- 
son called out of Egypt by the collective name, Israel, and the 
persons committing this idolatry, are the same persons, or the 
descendants of them. This then can be no prophecy of Jesus 
Christ, unless they are willing to make an idolator of him. I pass 
on to the fourth passage called a prophecy by the writer of the 
book of Matthew. 

This is introduced by a story, told by nobody but himself, and 
scarcely believed by any body, of the slaughter of all the chil- 
dren under two years old, by the command of Herod. A thing 
which it is not probable should be done by Herod, as he on- 
ly held an office under the Roman government, to which appeals 
could always be had, as we see in the case of Paul. 

Matthew, however, having made or told his story, says, chap, 
ii. v. 17. — u Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jere- 
my, the prophet, saying, — In Ramah ivas there a voice heard, la- 
mentation, weeping and great mourning ; Rachael weeping for her 
children, and woidd not be comforted because they were not." 

This passage is in Jeremiah, chap. xxxi. ver. 15, and this 
verse, when separated from the verses before and after it, and 
which explains its application, might with equal propriety be ap- 
plied to every case of wars, sieges, and other violences, such as 
the Christians themselves have often done to the Jews, where 
mothers have lamented the loss of their children. There is 
nothing in the verse taken singly that designates or points out 
any particular application of it, otherwise than it points to some 
circumstances which, at the time of writing it, had already hap- 
pened, and not to a thing yet to happen, for the verse is in the 
preter or past tense. I go to explain the case, and show the ap- 
plication of the verse. 

Jeremiah lived in the time that Nebuchadnezzar besieged, 
took, plundered, and destroyed Jerusalem, and led the Jews 
captive to Babylon. He carried his violence against the Jews 
to every extreme. He slew the sons of king Zedekiah before 



THE PROPHECIES. 



215 



his face, he then put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and kept him in 
jprison till the day of his death. 

It is of this time of sorrow and suffering to the Jews that Je- 
remiah is speaking. Their temple was destroyed, their land 4eso- 
lated, their nation and government entirely broken up, and 
themselves, men, women, and children, carried into captivity. 
They had too many sorrows of their own, immediately before 
their eyes, to permit them, or any of their chiefs, to be employ- 
ing themselves on things that might, or might not, happen in the 
world seven hundred years afterwards. 

It is, as already observed, of this time of sorrow and suffering 
to the Jews that Jeremiah is speaking in the verse in question. 
In the two next verses, the 16th and 17th, he endeavors to con- 
sole the sufferers by giving them hopes, and according to the 
fashion of speaking in those days, assurances from the Lord, that 
their sufferings should have an end, and that their children should 
return again to their own land. But I leave the verses to speak 
for themselves, and the Old Testament to testify against the 
New. 

Jeremiah, chap. xxxi. ver. 15. — " Thus saith the Lord, a voice 
was heard in Ramah (it is in the preter tense) lamentation and 
bitter weeping : Rachael, weeping for her children because they 
were not." 

Verse 16. — "Thus saith the Lord, refrain thy voice from 
weeping, and thine eyes from tears ; for thy work shall be re- 
warded, saith the Lord, and they shall come again from the land 
of the enemy" 

Verse 17. — " And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, 
that thy children shall come again to their own border" 

By what strange ignorance or imposition is it, that the children 
of which Jeremiah ^speaks, (meaning the people of the Jewish 
nation, scripturally called children of Israel, and not mere infants 
under two years old,) and who were to return again from the 
land of the enemy, and come again into their own borders, can 
mean the children that Matthew makes Herod to slaughter ? 
Could those return again from the land of the enemy, or how can 
the land of the enemy be applied to them ? Could they come 
again to they* own borders ? Good heaven ! How has the world 
been imposed upon by Testament-makers, priestcraft, and pre- 
tended prophecies. I pass on to the fifth passage called a pro- 
phecy of Jesus Christ. 

This, like two of the former, is introduced by dream. Joseph 
dreamed another dream, and dreameth of another Angel. And 
Matthew is again the historian of the dream and the dreamer. 
If it were asked how Matthew could know what Joseph dreamed, 
neither the Bishop nor all the Church could answer the question. 
Perhaps it was Matthew that dreamed and not Joseph, that is, 
Joseph dreamed by proxy, in Matthew's brain, as they tell us 



216* 



EXAMINATION OF 



Daniel dreamed for Nebuchadnezzar. But be this as it may, 
I go on with my subject. 

The account of this dream is in Matthew, chap. ii. ver. 19. — 
" Bin; when Herod was dead, behold an angel of the Lord ap- 
peared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt — Saying, arise and take 
the young child and its mother, and go into the land of Israel, 
for they are dead which sought the young child's life — and he 
arose and took the young child and his mother, and came into the 
land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in 
Judea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither. 
Notwithstanding being warned of God in a dream (here is an- 
other dream) he turned aside into the parts of Galilee ; and he 
came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled 
which was spoken by the prophets. — He shall be called a Nazarine." 

Here is good circumstantial evidence, that Matthew dreamed, 
for there is no such passage in all the Old Testament : and I in- 
vite the bishop and all the priests in Christendom, including 
those of America, to produce it. I pass on to the sixth passage, 
called a prophecy of Jesus Christ. 

This, as Swift says on another occasion, is lugged in head and 
shoidder ; it need only to be seen in order to .be hooted as a 
forced and far-fetched piece of imposition. 

Matthew, chap, iv, v. 12. " Now when Jesus heard that 
John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee — and leaving 
Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the 
sea coast, in the borders of Zebulon and Nephthalim — That it 
might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias (Isaiah) the 
prophet, saying, The land of Zebulon and the land of Nephthalim, 
by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the Gentiles — the 
people ivhich sat in darkness saw great light, and to them which sat 
in the region and shadow of death, liglvt is springing upon them" 

I wonder Matthew has not made the cris-cross-row, or the 
christ -cross-row (I know not how the priests spell it) into a pro- 
phecy. He might as well have done this as cut out these un- 
connected and undescriptive sentences from the place they stand 
m and dubbed them with that title. 

The words, however, are in Isaiah, chap. ix. ver. 1, 2, as fol- 
lows : — | 

a Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her 
vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulon 
and Hie land of Nephthali, and afterward did more grievously af- 
flict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan in Galilee of tJie na- 
tions." 

All this relates to#vo circumstances that had already happened, 
at the time these words in Isaiah were written. The one, where 
the land of Zebulon and Nephthali had been lightly afflicted, and 
afterwards more grievously by the way of the sea. But observe, 
reader, how Matthew has falsified the text. He begins his quota- 



THE PROPHECIES. 



217 



6on at a part of the verse where there is hot so much as a comma, 
and thereby cuts off every thing that relates to the first affliction. 
He then leaves out all that relates to the second affliction, and by 
this means leaves out every thing that makes the verse intelligi- 
ble, and reduces it to a senseless skeleton of names of towns. 

To bring this imposition of Matthew clearly and immediately 
before the eye of the reader, I will repeat the verse, and put be- 
tween crotchets the words he has left out, and put in Italics those 
he has preserved. 

[Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vex- 
ation when at the first he lightly afflicted] the land of Zebulon and 
the land of Nephthali, [and did afterwards more grievously afflict 
her] by the way of tJve sea beyond Jordan in Galilee of the nations. 

What gross imposition is it to gut, as the phrase is, a verse in 
this manner, render it perfectly senseless, and then puff it off on 
a credulous world as a prophecy. I proceed to the next verse. , 

Ver. 2. "The people that walked in darkness have seen a 
great light ; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, 
upon them hath the light shined." All this is historical, and not 
in the least prophetical. The whole is in the preter tense : it 
speaks of things that had been accomplished at the time the words 
were written, and not of things to be accomplished afterwards. 

As then the passage is in no possible sense prophetical, nor 
intended to be so, and that to attempt to make it so, is not only to 
falsify the original, but to commit a criminal imposition ; it is 
matter of no concern to us, otherwise than as curiosity, to know 
who the people were of which the passage speaks, that sat in 
darkness, and what the light was that had shined in upon them. 

If we look into the preceding chapter, the 8th, of which the 
9th is only a continuation, we shall find the writer speaking, at 
the 19th verse, of "witches and wizards who peep about and mut- 
ter" and of people who made application to them x and he preach- 
es and exhorts them against this darksome practice. It is of this 
people, and of this darksome practice, or walking in darkness^ 
that he is speaking at the 2d verse of the 9th chapter ; and with 
respect to the light that had shined in upon them, it refers entirely 
his own ministry, and to the boldness of it, which opposed itse 1 
to that of the witches and wizards who peeped about and mxdtered. 

Isaiah is, upon the whole, a wild disorderly writer, preserving 
in general no clear chain of perception in the arrangement of his 
ideas, and consequently producing no defined conclusions from 
them. It is the wildness of his style, the confusion of his ideas, 
and the ranting metaphors he employs, that have afforded so ma- 
ny opportunities to priestcraft in some cases, and to superstition 
in others, to impose those defects upon the world as prophecies 
of Jesus Christ. Finding no direct meaning in them, and not 
knowing what to make of them, and supposing at the same time 
they were intended to hav« a meaning, they supplied the defect 



218 



EXAMINATION OF 



by inventing a meaning of their own, and called it his. 1 have, 
however, in this place done Isaiah the justice to rescue him from 
the claws of Matthew, who has torn him unmercifully to pieces ; 
and from the imposition or ignorance of priests and commentators, 
by letting Isaiah speak for himself. 

If the words walking in darkness, and light breaking in, could in 
any case be applied prophetically, which they cannot be, they 
would better apply to the times we now live in than to any other 
The world has u walked in darkness" for eighteen hundred years, 
both as to religion and government, and it is only since the Ameri- 
can Revolution began that light has broken in. The belief of one 
God, whose attributes are revealed to us in the book of scripture 
of the creation, which no human hand can counterfeit or falsify, 
and not in the written or printed book which, as Matthew has 
shown, can be altered or falsified by ignorance or design, is now 
making its way among us : and as to government, the light is al- 
ready gone forth , and whilst men ought to be careful not to be 
blinded by the excess of it, as at a certain time in France, when 
every thing was Robespierrean violence, they ought to reverence, 
and even to adore it, with all the firmness and perseverance that 
true wisdom can inspire. 

I pass on to the seventh passage, called a prophecy of Jesus 
Christ. 

Matthew, chap. viii. ver. 16. " When the evening was come, 
the-y brought unto him (Jesus) many that were possessed with 
devils, and he cast out the spirit with his word, and healed all that 
were sick. — That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias 
(Isaiah) the prophet, saying, himself took our infirmities, and bear 
our sicknesses." 

This affair of people being possessed by devils, and of casting 
them out, was the fable of the day when the books of the New 
Testament were written. It had not existence at any other time. 
The books of the Old Testament mention no such thing ; the peo- 
ple of the present day know of no such thing ; nor does the history 
of any people or country speak of such a thing. It starts upon 
us all* at once in the book of Matthew, and is altogether an in- 
vention of the New Testament-makers and the Christian church. 
The book of Matthew is the first book where the word Devil is 
mentioned* We read in some of the booksof the Old Testament 
of things called familiar spirits, the supposed companions of people 
called witches and wizards. It was no other than the trick of pre- 
tended conjurors to obtain money from credulous and ignorant 
people, or the fabricated charge of superstitious malignancy a- 
gainst unfortunate and decrepid old age. 

But the idea of a familiar spirit, if we can affix any idea to the 
term, is exceedingly different to that of being possessed by a dev- 

* The word devil is a personification of the word evtl. 



THE PROPHECIES, 219L 

i\. In the one case, the supposed familiar spirit is a dexterous 
agent, that comes and goes and does as he is bidden : in the oth- 
er, he is a turbulent roaring monster, that tears and tortures the 
body into convulsions. Reader, whoever thou art, put thy trust 
in thy Creato*, make use of the reason he endowed thee with, and 
cast from thee all such fables. 

The passage alluded to by Matthew, for as a quotation it is false, 
is in Isaiah, chap. liii. ver. 4. which is as follows : 

"Surely he (the person of whom Isaiah is speaking of) hath 
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." It is in the prefer 
tense. 

Here is nothing about casting out devils, nor curing of sickness- 
es. The passage, therefore, so far from being a prophecy of 
Christ, is not even applicable as a circumstance. 

Isaiah, or at least the writer of the book that bears his name, 
employs the whole of this chapter, the 53d, in lamenting the suf- 
ferings of some deceased persons, of whom he speaks very pathet- 
ically. It is a monody on the death of a friend ; but he mentions 
not the name of the person, nor gives any circumstance of him by 
which he can be persoally known ; and it is this silence, which is 
evidence of nothing, that Matthew has laid hold of to put the name 
of Christ to it ; as if the chiefs of the Jews, whose sorrows were 
then great, and the times they lived in big with danger, were never 
thinking about their own affairs, nor the fate of their own friends, 
but were continually running a wild goose chase into futurity. 

To make a monody into a prophecy is an absurdity. The char- 
acters and circumstances of men, even in different ages of the 
world, are so much alike, that what is said of one may with pro- 
priety be said of many ; but this fitness does not make the pas- 
sage into a prophecy ; and none but an impostor or a bigot would 
call it so. 

Isaiah, in deploring the hard fate and loss of his friend, men- 
tions nothing of him but what the human lot of man is subject to. 
All the cases he states of him, his persecutions, his imprisonment, 
his patience in suffering, and his perseverance in principle, are 
all within the line of nature ; they belong exclusively to none, and 
may with justness be said of many. But if Jesus Christ was the 
person the church represents him to be, that which would exclu- 
sively apply to him, must be something that could not apply to 
any other person ; something beyond the line of nature ; some- 
thing beyond the lot of mortal man ; and there are no such ex- 
pressions in this chapter, nor any other chapter in the Old Test- 
ament. 

It is no exclusive description to say of a person, as is said of 
the person Isaiah is lamenting in this chapter. "He was oppress- 
ed, and he ivas afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth : he is brought 
as a lamb to the slaughter, a^d as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, 
so he opened not his mouth." This may be said of thousands of 



220 EXAMINATION OF 

persons, who have suffered oppressions and unjust death with pa- 
tience, silence, and perfect resignation. 

Grotius, whom the bishop esteems a most learned man, and who 
certainly was so, supposes that the person of whom Isaiah is speak- 
ing \ is Jeremiah. Grotius is led into this opinion, from the agree- 
ment there is between the description given by Isaiah, and the 
case of Jeremiah, as stated in the book that bears his name. If 
J eremiah was an innocent man, arid not a traitor in the interest of 
Nebuchadnezzar, when Jerusalem was besieged, his case was 
hard ; he was accused by his countrymen, was persecuted, op- 
pressed, and imprisoned, and he says of himself, (see Jeremiah, 
chapter ii. ver. 19,) ''Bid as for me, livas like a lamb or an ox that is 
brought to the slaughter." 

I should be inclined to the same opinion with Grotius, had Isaiah 
lived at the time whentFeremiah underwent the cruelties of which 
he speaks ; but Isaiah died about fifty years before : and it is of a 
person of his own time, whose case Isaiah is lamenting in the chap- 
ter in question, and which imposition and bigotry, more than seven 
hundred years afterwards, perverted into a prophecy of a person 
they call Jesus Christ. 

I pass on to the eighth passage called a prophecy of Jesus 
Christ. 

Matthew, chap. xii. ver. 14. "Then the pharisees went out 
and held a council against him, how they might destroy him — But 
when Jesus knew it he withdrew himself ; and great numbers fol- 
lowed him, and he healed them all — and he charged them that they 
should not make him known : That it might be fulfilled which 
was spokon by Esaias (Isaiah) the prophet, saying, 

" Behold my servant whom I have chosen : my beloved in 
whom my soul is well pleased ; I will put my spirit upon him, and 
he shall show judgment to the Gentiles — he shall not strive nor 
cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets — a bruised 
reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, 
till he sends forth judgment unto victory — and in his name shall 
the Gentiles trust." 

In the first place,, this passage hath not the least relation to 
the purpose for which it is quoted. 

Matthew says, that the Pharisees held a council against J esus 
to destroy him — that J esus withdrew himself — that great num- 
bers followed him — that he healed them — and that he charged 
them they should not make him known. 

But the passage Matthew has quoted as being fulfilled by these 
circumstances, does not so much as apply to any one of them. It 
has nothing to do with the Pharisees holding a council to destroy 
Jesus— with his withdrawing himself — with great numbers follow- 
ing him — with his healing them — nor with his charging them not 
to make him known. 

The purpose for which the passage is quoted, and the passage 



THE PROPHECIES* 



221 



itself, are as remote from each other, as nothing from something. 
But the case is, that people have been so long in the habit of 
reading the books called the Bible and Testament, with their eyes 
shut, and their senses locked up, that the most stupid inconsist- 
encies have passed on them for truth, and imposition for prophe- 
cy. The all-wise Creator hath been dishonoured by being made 
the author of fable, and the human mind degraded by believing . 

it. 

In this passage, as in that last mentioned, the name of the per- 
son of whom the passage speaks is not given, and we are left in 
the dark respecting him. It is this defect in the history, that big- 
otry and imposition have laid hold of, to call it prophecy. 

Had Isaiah lived in the time of Cyrus, the passage would de- 
scriptively apply to him. As king of Persia, his authority was 
great among the Gentiles, and it is of such a character the pas- 
sage speaks ; and his friendship to the Jews whom he liberated 
from captivity, and who might then be compared to a bruised reed, 
was extensive. But this description does not apply to Jesus 
Christ, who had no authority among the Gentiles ; and as to his 
own countrymen, figuratively described by the bruised reed, it 
was they who crucified him. Neither can it be said of him that 
he did not cry, and that his voice was not heard in the street. 
As a preacher it was his business to be heard, and we are told 
that he travelled about the country for that purpose. Matthew 
has given a long sermon, which (if his authority is good, but 
which is much to be doubted, since he imposes so much,) Jesus 
preached to a multitude upon a mountain, and it would be a quib- 
ble to say that a mountain is not a street, since it is a place equal- 
ly as public. 

The last verse in the passage (the 4th,) as it stands in Isai- 
ah, and which Matthew has not quoted, says, u He shall not fail 
nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth and the 
isles shall wait for his law. " This also applies to Cyrus. He 
was not discouraged, he did not fail, he conquered all Babylon, 
liberated the Jews, and established laws. But this cannot be said 
of Jesus Christ, who, in the passage before us, according to Mat- 
thew, withdrew himself for fear of the Pharisees, and charged the 
people that followed him not to make it known where he was ; 
and who, according to other parts of the Testament, was contin- 
ually moving from place to place to avoid being apprehended * 

* In the second part of the Age of Reason, I have shown that the book ascribed 
to Isaiah is not only miscellaneous as to matter, but as to authorship : that there are 
parts in it which could not be written by Isaiah, because they speak of things one 
hundred and fifty years after he was dead. The instance I have given of this, in that 
work, corresponds with the subject I am upon, at least a little better than Matthew's 
introduction and his quotation. 

Isaiah lived, the latter part of his life, in the time of Hezekiah, and it was about 
one hundred and fifty years, from the death of Hezekiah to the first year of the reign 
of Cyrus, when Cyrus published a proclamation, which is given in the fast chapter of 
the book of Ezra, for the return of the Jews to Jerusalem. It cannot he doubted, at 

19* 



222 



EXAMINATION OP 



Bat it is immaterial to us, at this distance of time, to Know who 
the person was : it is sufficient to the purpose I am upon, that of 
detecting fraud and falsehood, to know who it was not, and to 
show it was not the person called Jesus Christ. 

I pass on to the ninth passage called a prophecy of Jesus Christ. 

Matthew, chap. xxi. v. 1. "And when they drew nigh unto 
Jerusalem, and were come to Bethpage, unto the mount of Ol- 
ives, then Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying unto them, go 
into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an 
ass tied, and a colt with her, loose them and bring them unto me 
— and if any man say aught to you, ye shall say, the Lord hath 
need of them, and straightway he will send them. 

" All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken 
by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, behold thy 
king cometh unto thee meek, and setting on an ass, and a colt the 
foal of an ass." 

Poor ass ! let it be some consolation amidst all thy sufferings, 
that if the heathen world erected a bear into a constellation, the 
Christian world has elevated thee into a prophecy. 

This passage is in Zechariah, chap. ix. ver. 9, and is one of 
the whims of friend Zechariah to congratulate his countrymen, 
who were then returning from captivity in Babylon, and himself 
with them, .to Jerusalem. It has no concern with any other sub- 
ject, It is strange that apostles, priests, and commentators, nev- 
er permit, or never suppose, the Jews to be speaking of their 
own affairs. Every thing in the Jewish books is perverted and 
distorted into meanings never intended by the writers. Even the 
poor ass must not be a Jew-ass but a Christian-ass. I wonder 
they did not make an apostle of him, or a bishop, or at least make 

least it ought not to be doubted, that the Jews would feel an affectionate gratitude for 
this act of benevolen: justice, and it is natural they would express that gratitude in the 
customary style, bombastical and hyperbolical as it was, which they used on extraor- 
dinary occasions, ard which was, and still is in practice with all the eastern nations. 

The instance to which I refer, and which is given in the second part of the Age of 
Reason, is the last verse of the 44th chapter, and the beginning of the 45th — in these 
words : " That saith of Cyrus, he is my shepherd and shall perform all my pleas- 
ure : even saying to Jerusalem, thoushalt be built, and to the Temple, thy foun- 
dation shall be laid. Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right 
hand I have holden to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of 
kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates, and the gates shall not be shut." 

This complimentary address is in the present tense, which shows that the things of 
which it speaks were in existence at the time of writing it ; and consequently, that 
the author must have been at least one hundred and fifty years later than Isaiah, and 
that the book which bears his name is a compilation. The Proverbs called Solomon's, 
and the Psalms called David's, are of the same kind. The two last verses of the 
second book of Chronicles, and the three first verses of the first chapter of Ezra, are 
word for word the same ; which show that the compilers of the Bible mixed the writings 
of different authors together, and put them under some common head. 

As we have here an instance in the 44th and 45th chapters of the introduction of 
the name of Cyrus into a book to which it cannot belong, it affords good ground to 
conclude, that the passage in the 42d chapter, in which the character of Cyrus is giv- 
en without his name, has been introduced in like manner, and that the person there 
epoken of is Cyrus 



THE PROPHECIES. 



Z°23 



him speak and prophecy. He could have lifted up his voice as 
loud as any of them. 

Zechariah, in the first chapter of his book, indulges himself in 
several whims on the joy of getting back to Jerusalem. He says 
at the 8th verse, " I saw by night (Zechariah was a sharp-sight- 
ed seer) and behold a man sitting on a red horse, (yes, reader, a 
red horse) and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the 
bottom, and behind him were red horses speckled and white." He 
says nothing about green horses, nor blue horses, perhaps because 
it is difficult to distinguish green from blue by night, but a Chris- 
tian can have no doubt they were there, because u faith is the ev- 
idence of things not seen." 

Zechariah then introduces an angel among his horses, but he 
does not tell us what colour the angel was of, whether black or 
white, nor whether he came to buy horses, or only to look at them 
as curiosities, for certainly they were of that kind. Be this how* 
ever, as it may, he enters into conversation with this angel, on 
the joyful affair of getting back to Jerusalem, and he saith at the 
16th verse, " Therefore, thus saith the Lord, I am returned to 
Jerusalem with mercies ; my house shall be built in it 9 saith the 
Lord of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusa- 
lem." An expression signifying the rebuilding the city. 

All this, whimsical and imaginary as it is, sufficiently proves 
that it was the entry of the Jews into J erusalem from captivity, 
and not the entry of Jesus Christ seven hundred years afterwards, 
that is the subject upon which Zechariah is always speaking. 

As to the expression of riding upon an ass* which commenta- 
tors represent as a sign of humility in Jesus Christ, the case is, 
he never was so well mounted before. The asses of those coun- 
tries are large and well-proportioned, and were anciently the 
chief of riding animals. Their beasts of burden, and which 
served also for the conveyance of the poor, were camels and drom- 
edaries. We read in Judges, chap. x. ver. 4, that " Jair (one 
of the Judges of Israel) had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass- 
colts , and they had thirty cities." But commentators distort ev- 
ery thing. 

There is besides very reasonable grounds to conclude that this 
story of Jesus riding publicly into Jerusalem, accompanied, as it 
is said at the 8th and 9th verses, by a great multitude, shouting 
and rejoicing, and spreading their garments by the way, is alto- 
gether a "story destitute of truth. 

In the last passage called a prophecy that I examined, Jesus 
is represented as withdrawing, that is, running away, and con- 
cealing himself for fear of being apprehended, and charging the 
people that were with him not to make him known. No new cir- 
cumstance had arisen in the interim to change his condition for 
the better ; yet here he is represented as making his public entry 
into the same city from which he had fled for safety. The two 



£24 



EXAMINATION OF 



cases contradict each other so much, that if both are not false, 
one of them at least can scarcely be true. For my own part, I 
do not believe there is one word of historical truth in the whole 
book, I look upon it at best to be a. romance ; the principal per- 
sonage of which is an imaginary or allegorical character founded 
upon some tale, and in which the moral is in many parts good, 
and the narrative part very badly and blunderingly written. 

I pass on to the tenth passage, called a prophecy of Jesus 
Christ. 

Matthew, chap. xxvi. ver. 51. " And behold one of them 
which was with Jesus (meaning Peter)* stretched out his hand, 
and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest, and 
smote off his.ear. Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy 
sword into its place, for all they that take the sword shall perish 
with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my 
Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions 
of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled that 
thus it must be? In that same hour Jesus said to the multitudes, 
are ye come out as against a thief with swords and with staves 
for to take me ? I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and 
ye laid no hold on me. But all this was done that the scriptures 
of the prophets might be fulfilled. 

This loose and general manner of speaking, admits neither of 
detection nor of proof. Here is no quotation given, nor the name 
of any Bible author mentioned, to which reference can be had. 

There are, however, some high improbabilities against the 
truth of the account. 

First-r-It is not probable that the Jews, who were then a con- 
quered people, and under subjection to the Romans, should be 
permitted to wear swords. 

Secondly — If Peter had attacked the servant of the high priest 
and cut off his ear, he would have been immediately taken up by 
the guard that took up his master, and sent to prison with him. 

Thirdly — What sort of disciples and preaching apostles must 
those of Christ have been that wore swords ? 

Fourthly — This scene is represented to have taken place the 
same evening of what is called the Lord's Supper, which makes, 
according to the ceremony of it, the inconsistency of wearing 
swords the greater. 

I pass on to the eleventh passage called a prophecy of Jesus 
Christ. 

Matthew, chap, xxvii. ver. 3. " Then Judas which had be- 
trayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented him- 
self, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief 
priests and elders, saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed 
the innocent blood. And they said, what is that to us. see thou to 
that. And he cast down the pieces of silver, and departed and 
went and hanged himself—And the chief priests took the silver 



THE PROPHECIES. 



225 



pieces and said, it is not lawful to put them in the treasury, be- 
cause- it is the price of blood — And they took counsel and bought 
with them the potter's field to bury strangers in — Wherefore that 
field is called the field of blood unto this day. Then was fulfill- 
ed t'nat which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, And 
they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was 
valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value, and gave 
them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me." 

This is a most bare-faced piece of imposition. The passage 
m Jeremiah, which speaks of the purchase of a field, has no more 
to do with the case to which Matthew applies it, than it has to 
do with the purchase of lands in America. I will recite the 
whole passage : — 

Jeremiah, chap, xxxii. v. G. " And Jeremiah said, the word of 
the Lord came unto me, saying — Behold Hanamiel, the son of 
Shallum thine uncle, shall come unto thee, saying, buy thee my 
field that is in Anathoth, for the right of redemption is thine to 
buy it — So Hanamiel mine uncle's son came to me in the court 
of the prison, according to the word of the Lord, and said unto 
me, buy my field I pray thee,* that is in Anathoth, which is in 
the country of Benjamin, for the right of inheritance is thine, and 
the redemption is thine ; buy it for thyself. Then I knew that 
this was the word of the Lord — And I bought the field of Hana- 
miel mine uncle's son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him 
the money, even seventeen shekels of silver — and I subscribed 
the evidence and sealed it, and took witnesses and weighed him 
the money in balances. So I took the evidence of the purchase, 
both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and 
that which was open — and I gave the evidence of the purchase 
unto Baruch, the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, in the 
sight of Hanamiel mine uncle's son, and in the presence of the 
witnesses that subscribed the book of the purchase, before all the 
Jews that sat in the court of the prison — and I charged Baruch 
before them, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Is- 
rael, Take these evidences, this evidence of the purchase, both 
which is sealed, and this evidence which is open, and put them in 
an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days — for thus 
saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, houses, and fields, and 
vineyards, shall be possessed again in this land." 

I forbear making any remark on this abominable imposition 
of Matthew. The thing glaringly speaks for itself. It is priests 
and commentators that I rather ought to censure, for having 
preached falsehood so long, and kept people in darkness with 
respect to those impositions. I am not contending with these 
men upon points of doctrine, for I know that sophistry has always 
a city of refuge. I am speaking of facts ; for wherever the 
thing called a fact is a falsehood, the faith founded upon it is de- 
lusion, and the doctrine raised upon it not true. Ah, reader, 



226 



EXAMINATION OF 



put thy trust in thy Creator, and thou wilt be safe ! but if thou 
trustest to the book called the Scriptures, thou trustest to the rot- 
ten staff of fable and falsehood. But I return to my subject. 

There is among the whims and reveries of Zechariah, mention 
made of thirty pieces of silver given to a potter. They can hard- 
ly have been so stupid as to mistake a potter for a field : and if 
they had, the passage in Zechariah has no more to do with Je- 
sus, Judas, and the field to bury strangers in, than that already 
quoted. I will recite the passage. 

Zechariah, chap. xi. ver. 7. " And I will feed the flock of 
slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock ; and I took unto me 
two staves ; the one I called Beauty and the other I called Bands, 
and I fed the flock — Three shepherds also, I cut off in one 
month ; and my soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred 
me. — Then said I, I will not feed you ; that which dieth, let it 
die ; and that which is to be cut off, let it be cut off ; and let the 
rest eat every one the flesh of another. — And I took my staff, even 
Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which 
I had made with all the people. — And it was broken in that day ; 
and so the poor of the flock who waited upon me, knew that it 
was the word of the Lord. 

u And I said unto them, if ye think' good, give me my price, 
and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of 
silver. And the Lord said unto me, cast it unto the potter, a goodly 
price that I was prised at of them ; and I took the thirty pieces 
of silver and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord. 

"When I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I 
might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel."* 

* Whiston, in bis Essay on the Old Testament, says, that the passage of Zechariah 
of which I have spoken, was in the copies of the Bible of the first century, in the 
book of Jeremiah, from whence, says he, it w as taken and inserted without coher 
ence, in that of Zechariah — well, let it be so, it does not make the case a whit the 
better for the New Testament ; but it makes the case a great deal the worse for the 
Old. Because it shows, as I have mentioned respecting some passages in a book as- 
cribed to Isaiah, that the works of different authors have been so mixed and con« 
founded together, they cannot now be discriminated, except where they are historical 
chronological, or biographical, as is the interpolation in Isaiah. It is the name of 
Cyrus inserted where it could not be inserted, as he was not in existence till one 
hundred and fifty years after the time of Isaiah, that detects the interpolation and the 
blunder with it. 

Whiston was a man of great literary learning, and, what is of much higher degree, 
-of deep scientific learning. He was one of the best and most celebrated mathemati- 
cians of his time, for which he was made professor of mathematics of the university 
of Cambridge. He wrote so much in defence of the Old Testament, and of what he 
calls prophecies of Jesus Christ, that at last he began to suspect the truth of the scrip- 
tures, and wrote against them ; for it is only those who examine them, that see the 
imposition Those who believe them most, are those who know least about them. 

Whiston, after writing so much in defence of the scriptures, was at last prosecuted 
for writing against them. It was this that gave occasion to Swift, in his ludicrous 
epigram on Ditton and Whiston, each of which set up to find out the longitude, to call 
the one good master Ditton, and the other, wicked mill Whiston. But as Swift 
was a great associate with the Freethinkers of those days, such as Bolingbroke, Pope, 
and others, who did not believe the book called the scriptures, there is no certainty 
whether he wittily called him wicked for defending the scriptures, or for writing 
against them. The known character of Swift decides for the former. 



THE PROrHECIES. 



227 



There is no making either head or tail of this incoherent gib- 
berish. His two staves, one called Beauty and the other Bands, 
is so much like a fairy tale, that I doubt if it had any other ori- 
gin. — There is, however, no part that has the least relation to 
the case stated in Matthew ; on the contrary it is the reverse of 
it. Here the thirty pieces of silver, whatever it was for, is called 
a. goodly price, it was as much as the thing was worth, and ac- 
cording to the language of the day, was approved of by the 
Lord, and the money given to the potter in tbe house of the 
Lord. In the case of Jesus and Judas, as stated in Matthew, 
the thirty pieces of silver were the price of blood; the transac- 
tion was condemned by the Lord, and the money, w T hen refund- 
fid, was refused admittance into the treasury. Every thing in 
the two cases is the reverse of each other. 

Besides this, a very different and direct contrary account to 
that of Matthew, is. given of the affair of Judas, in the hook 
called the Jicts of the Jlpostlcs ; according to that book the case 
is, that so far from Judas repenting and returning the money, 
and the high priest buying a field with it to bury strangers in, 
Judas kept the money and bought a field with it for himself ; 
and instead of hanging himself as Matthew says, he fell head- 
long and burst asunder — some commentators endeavour to get 
over one part of the contradiction by ridiculously supposing that 
Judas hanged himself first and the rope broke. 

Acts, chap. i. ver. 16. " Men and brethren, this scripture 
must needs have been fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the 
mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was a 
guide to them that took Jesus. (David says not a word about 
Judas) ver. 17, for he (Judas) was numbered among us and 
obtained part of our ministry." 

Yer. 18. "Now this man purchased a field with the reward of 
iniquity, and falling headlong he burst asunder in the midst, and his 
bowels gushed out." Is it not a species of blasphemy to call the 
New-Testament revealed 7*eligion, when we see in it such contra- 
dictions and absurdities. 

I pass on to the twelfth passage called a prophecy of Jesus Christ. 

Matthew, chap, xxvii. ver. 35. " And they crucified him, 
and parted his garments, casting lots; that it might be fulfilled 
which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments 
among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots" This ex- 
pression is in the 22d Psalm, ver. 18. The writer of that Psalm 
(whoever he was, for the Psalms are a collection and not the work 
of one man) is speaking of himself and his own case, and not that 
of another. He begins this Psalm with the words which the 
New-Testament writers ascribed to Jesus Christ. "My God, 
my God, why hast thou forsaken me" — words which might be utter- 
ed by a complaining man without any great impropriety r but 
very improperly from the mouth of a reputed God. 



£28 



EXAMINATION OP 



The picture which the writer draws of his own situation in 
this Psalm, is gloomy enough, He is not prophesying, but com- 
plaining of his own hard case. He represents himself as sur- 
rounded by enemies and beset by persecutions of every kind; 
and by way of showing the inveteracy of his persecutors, he 
says at the 18th verse, t; They parried my garments among them, 
and cast lots upon my vesture." The expression is in the present 
tense ; and is the same as to say, they pursue me even to the 
clothes upon my back, and dispute how they shall devide them ; 
besides, the word vesture does not always mean cloathing of any 
kind, but properly, or rather the admitting a man to, or investing 
.him with property ; and as it is used in this Psalm distinct from 
the word garment, it appears to be used in this sense. But 
Jesus had no property 5 for they make him say of himself, " The 
foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of 
man hath not where io lay his head" 

But be this as it may, if we permit ourselves to suppose the 
Almighty would condescend to tell, by what is called the spirit of 
prophecy, what could come to pass in some future age of the 
world, it is an injury to our own faculties, and to our ideas of his 
greatness, to imagine that it would be about an old coat, or an 
old pair of breeches, or about any thing which the common 
accidents of life, or the quarrels that attend it, exhibit every day. 

That which is in the power of man to do, or in his will not 
to do, is not a subject for prophecy, even if there were such a 
thing, because it cannot carry with it any evidence of divine 
power, or divine interposition ; The ways of God are not the 
ways of men. That which an almighty power performs, or wills, 
is not within the circle of human power to do, or to control. 
But any executioner and his assistants might quarrel about divid- 
ing the garments of a sufferer, or divide them without quarreling, 
and by that irfeans fulfil the thing called a prophecy, or set it aside. 

In the passage before examined, I have exposed the falsehood 
of them. In this I exhibit its degrading meanness, as an insult 
to the Creator and an injury to human reason. 

Here end the passages called prophecies by Matthew. 

Matthew concludes hrs book by saying, that when Christ ex- 
pired on the cross, the rocks rent, the graves opened, and the 
bodies of many of the saints arose ; and Mark says, there was 
darkness over the land from the sixth hour until the ninth. They 
produce no prophecy for this ; but had these things been facts, 
they would have been a proper subject for prophecy, because 
none but an almighty power could have inspired a fore-knowl- 
edge of them, and afterwards fulfilled them. Since then, there 
is no such prophecy, but a pretended prophecy of an old coat, 
the proper deduction is, there were no such things, and that the 
book of Matthew is fable and falsehood. 

I pass on to the book called the Gospel according to St. Mark. 



THE PROPHECIES. 



THE BOOK OF MARK. 

There are but few passages in Mark called prophecies,; and 
but few in'Luke and John. Such as there are I shall examine, 
and also such other passages as interfere with those cited by 
Matthew. 

Mark begins his book by a passage which he puts in the 
shape of a prophecy. Mark, chap, i, ver 1.— " The beginning 
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God — As it is written 
in the prophets, Behold I send my messenger before thy face, which 
shall prepare the way before thee." Malachi, chap. iii. ver. 1. 
The passage in the original is in the first person. Mark makes 
this passage to be a prophecy of John the Baptist, said by the 
Church to be a forerunner of Jesus Christ. But if we attend 
to the verses that follow this expression, as it stands in Malachi,, 
and to the first and fifth verses of the next chapter, we shall see 
that this application of it is erroneous and false. 

Malachi having said at the first verse, "Behold I will send my 
messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me," says at the 
second verse, "But who may abide the day of his coming? and 
who shall stand when he appeareth ? for he is like a refiner's 
fire, and like fuller's soap." 

This description can have no reference to the birth of Jesus 
Christ, and consequently none to John the Baptist. It is a 
scene of fear and terror that is here described, and the birth of 
Christ is always spoken of as a time of joy and glad tidings. 

Malachi, continuing to speak on the same subject, explains in 
the next chapter what the scene is of which he speaks in the 
verses above quoted, and who the person is whom he -calls the 
messenger. 

" Behold," says he, chap. iv. ver. 1, "the day cometh that shall 
burn like an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wick- 
edly, shall be stubble ; and the day cometh that shall burn them 
up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root 
nor branch." 

Ver. 5, " Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the 
coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." 

By what right, or by what imposition or ignorance Mark has 
made Elijah into John the Baptist, and Malachi's description of 
the day of judgment into the birth day of Christ, I leave to the 
Bishop to settle. 

Mark, in the second and third verses of his first chapter, con- 
founds two passages together, taken from different books of the 
Old Testament. The second verse, "Behold I send my mes- 
senger before thy face, which shall prepare the way before me," 
is taken, as I have said before, from Malachi. The third verse, 
which says, " The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare 



230 



EXAMINATION OP 



ye the way of the Lord, mase his path straight/* is not in Mala- 
chi, but in Isaiah, chap. xi. ver. 3. Whiston says, that both 
these verses were originally in Isaiah. If so, it is another in- 
stance of the disordered state of the Bible, and corroborates 
what I have said with respect to the name and description of 
Cyrus being in the book of Isaiah, to which it cannot chronolo- 
gically belong. 

The words in Isaiah, chap. xl. ver. 3, u The voice of him that 
cryeth in the wilderness, prepare ye the ivay of tlie Lord, make his 
path straight," are in the present tense, and consequently not 
predictive. It is one of those rhetorical figures which the Old 
Testament authors frequently used. That it is merely rhetor- 
ical and metaphorical, may be seen at the 6th verse. u And 
the voice said, cry ; and he said, what shall I cry? Jill flesh is 
grass" This is evidently nothing but a figure ; for flesh is not 
grass otherwise than as a figure or metaphor, where one thing is 
jput for another. Besides which, the whole passage is too gen- 
eral and declamatory to be applied exclusively to any particular 
person or purpose. 

I pass on to the eleventh chapter. 

In this chapter, Mark speaks of Christ riding into Jerusalem 
upon a colt, but he does not make it the accomplishment of a pro- 
phecy, as Matthew has done ; for he says nothing about a prophe- 
cy. Instead of which, he goes on the other tack, and in order to 
add new honours to the ass, he makes it to be a miracle ; for he 
says, ver. 2, it was u a colt whereon never man sat ; n signfyrng 
thereby, that as the ass had not been broken, he consequently was 
inspired into good manners, for we do not hear that he kicked Je- 
sus Christ off. There is not a word about his kicking in all the 
four Evangelists. 

I pass on from these feats of horsemanship, performed upon a 
jack-ass, to the 15th chapter. 

At the 24th verse of this chapter, Mark speaks of parting 
Christ's garments and casting lots upon them, but he applies no 
prophecy to it as Matthew does. He rather speaks of it as a 
thing then in practice with executioners, as it is at this day. 

At the 28th verse of the same chapter, Mark speaks of Christ 
being crucified between two thieves ; that, says he, u the scrip- 
tures might be fulfilled which sailh, and he was numbered with the 
transgressors" The same thing might be said of the thieves. 

This expression is in Isaiah, chap. liii. ver. 12 — Grotius applies 
it to Jeremiah. But the case has happened so often in the world, 
where innocent men have been numbered with transgressors, and 
is still continually happening, that it is absurdity to call it a pro- 
phecy of any particular person. All those whom the church call 
martyrs were numbeied with transgressors. All the honest pat- 
riots who fell upon the scaffold in France, in the time of Robes- 
pierre, were numbered with transgressors ; and if himself had not 



THE PROPHECIES. 



£31 



fallen, the same case, according to a note in his own hand- writing, 
had befallen me ; yet I suppose the Bishop will not allow that 
Isaiah was prophesy h>g of Thomas Paine. 

These are all the passages in Mark which have any reference 
to prophecies. 

Mark concludes his ^ook by making Jesus say to his disciples, 
chap. xvi. vef. 15, " G^ ye into all the world and preach the gos- 
pel to every creature > iie that believeth and is baptized shall be 
saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned (fine Popish stuff 
this,) and these signs shall follow them that believe ; in my name 
they shall cast out devils ; they shall speak with new tongues ; 
they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it 
shall not hurt them ; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they 
shall recover." 

Now, the Bishop, in order to know if he. has all this saving and 
wonder-working faith, should try those things upon himself. He 
should take a good dose of arsenic, and if he please, I will send 
him a rattle-snake from America ! As for myself, as I believe in 
God, and not at all in Jesus Christ, nor in the. books called the 
scriptures, the experiment does not concern me. 

I pass on to the book of Luke. 

There are no passages in Luke called prophecies, excepting 
those which relate to the passages I have already examined. 

Luke speaks of Mary being espoused to Joseph, but he makes 
no references to the passage in Isaiah, as Matthew does. He 
speaks also of Jesus riding into Jerusalem upon a colt ; but he 
says nothing about prophecy. He speaks of John the baptist, and 
refers to the passage in Isaiah of which I have already spoken. 

At the 13th chapter, verse 31, he says, "The same day there 
came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, (Jesus) get 
thee out and depart hence, for Herod will kill thee — and he said 
unto them, go ye and tell that fox, behold I cast out devils and I 
do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I shall be per- 
fected." 

Matthew makes Herod to die whilst Christ was- a child in E- 
gypt, and makes Joseph to return with the child on the news of 
Herod's death, who had sought to kill him. Luke makes Herod 
to be living, and to seek the life of Jesus, after Jesus was thirty 
years of age ; for he says, chap. iii. v. 23, "And Jesus began to 
be about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of 
Joseph." 

The obscurity in which the historical part of the New Testa- 
ment is involved with respect to Herod, may afford to priests and 
commentators a plea, which to some may appear plausible, but to 
none satisfactory, that the Herod of which Matthew speaks, and 
the Herod of which Luke speaks, were different persons. Mat- 
thew calls Herod a king; and Luke, chap. iii. v. 1, calls Herod, 
Tetrach, (that is, Governor)" of Galilee. But there could be no 



EXAMINATION OF 



such person as a king Herod, because the Jews and their country 
were then under the dominion of the Roman Emperors who gov- 
erned then by Tetrachs or Governors. 

Luke, chap. ii. makes Jesus to be born when Cyrenius was 
Governor of Syria, to which government Judea was annexed; and 
according to this, J esus was not born in the time of Herod. Luke 
says nothing about Herod seeking the life of Jesus when he was 
born ; nor of his destroying the children under two years old ; nor 
of Joseph fleeing with Jesus into Egypt ; nor of his returning 
from thence. On the contrary, tlmbook of Luke speaks as if the 
person it calls Christ had never been out of Judea, and that Her- 
od sought his life after he commenced preaching, as is before 
stated. I have already shown that Luke, in the book called the 
Acts of the Apostles, (which commentators ascribe to Luke) con- 
tradicts the account in Matthew, with respect to Judas and the 
thirty pieces of silver. Matthew says, that Judas returned the 
money, and that the high priests bought with it a field to bury 
strangers in. Luke says, that Judas kept the money, and bought 
a field with it for himself. 

As it is impossible the wisdom of God should err, so it is im- 
possible those books should have been written by divine inspiration. 
Our belief in God, and his unerring wisdom, forbids us to be- 
lieve it. As for myself, I feel religiously happy in the total dis- 
belief of it. 

There are no other passages called prophecies in Luke than 
those I have spoken of. I pass on to the book of John. 



THE BOOK OF JOHIY. 

John, like Mark and Luke, is not much of a prophecy-monger. 
He speaks of the ass, and the casting lots for Jesus' clothes, 
and some other trifles, of which I have already spoken. 

John makes Jesus to say, chap. v. ver. 46, " For had ye be- 
lieved Moses, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me." 
The book of the Acts, in speaking of Jesus, says, chap. iii. ver. 
22, " For Moses truly said unto the fathers, a prophet shall the 
Lord your God raise up unto you, of your brethren, like unto me, 
him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shalt say unto 
you." 

This passage is in Deuteronomy, chap, xviii. ver. 15, They 
apply it as a prophecy of Jesus. What impositions ! The per- 
son spoken of in Deuteronomy, and also in Numbers, where the 
same person is spoken of, is Joshua, the minister of Moses, 
and his immediate successor, and just such another Robespier- 
re an character as Moses is represented to have been. The case, 
as related in those books, is as follows : — 



* 



THE PROPHECIES. 



233 



Moses was grown old and near to his end, and in order to pre- 
vent confusion after his death, for the Israelites had no settled sys- 
tem of government, it was thought best to nominate a successor 
to Moses while he was yet living. This was done, as we are 
told, in the following manner" : 

Numbers, chap, xxvii. ver. 12. " And the Lord said unto 
Moses, get thee up into this mount Abarim, and see the land 
which I have given unto the children of Israel — and when thou 
hast seen it, thou also shall be gathered unto thy people as Aaron 
thy brother is gathered, ver. 14 And Moses spake unto the 
Lord, saying, Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, 
set a man over the congregation — Which may go out before them, 
and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, 
and which may bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord 
be not as sheep that have no shepherd— And the Lord said unto 
Moses, take thee Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom is the 
spirit, and lay thine hand upon him — and set him before Eleazar, 
the priest, and before all the congregation, and give him a charge 
in their sight — and thou shalt put some of thine honour upon 
him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may be 
obedient — ver. 22, and Moses did as the Lord commanded, and 
he took Joshua, and set him before Eleazar the priest, and be- 
fore all the congregation ; and he laid hands upon him, and gave 
him charge as the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses." 

I have nothing to do, in this place, with the truth, or the con- 
juration here practised, of raising up a successor to Moses like 
unto himself. The passage sufficiently proves it is Joshua, and 
that it is an imposition in John t& make the case into a prophecy 
of Jesus. But the prophecy-mongers were so inspired with 
falsehood, that thev never speak truths 

* Newton, Bishop of Bristol in England, published a work in three volumes, enti- 
tled, " Dissertations on the Prophecies." The work is tediously written and tire- 
some to read. He 1 strains hard to make every passage into a prophecy that suits his 
purpose. — Among others, he makes this expression of Moses, " the Lord shall raise 
thee up a prophet like unto me," into a prophecy of Christ, who was not born, ac- 
cording to the Bible chronologies, till fifteen hundred and fifty-two years after the time 
of Moses, whereas it was an immediate successor to Moses, who was then near his 
end, that is spoken of in the passage above quoted. 

This Bishop, the better to impose this passage on the world as a prophecy of Christ, 
has entirely omitted the account in the book of Numbers which I have given at length, 
word for word, and which shows, beyond the possibility of a doubt that the person 
spoken of by Moses, is Joshua, and no other person. 

Newton is but a superficial writer. He takes up things upon hear-say, and inserts 
them without either examination or reflection, and the more extraordinary and in- 
credible they are, the better he likes them. 

In speaking of the walls of Babylon, (volume the first, page 263,) he makes a 
quotation from a traveller of the name of Tavernur, whom he calls (by way of giv- 
ing credit to what he says,) a celebrated traveller, that those walls were made of 
burnt brick, ten feet square and three feet thick. — If Newton had only thought of 
calculating the weight of such a brick, he would have seen the impossibility of their 
being used or even made. A brick ten feet square, and three feet thick, contains 
three hundred cubic feet,and allowing a cubic ibot of brick to be only one hundred 



234 



EXAMINATION OF 



I pass on to the last passage in these fables of the Evangelists 
called a prophecy of Jesus Christ. 

John having spoken of Jesus expiring on the cross between 
two thieves, says, chap. xix. ver. 32. " Then came the soldiers 
and brake the legs of the first (meaning one of the thieves) and 
of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came 
to Jesus and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his 
legs — ver. 36, for these things were done that the Scripture 
should be fulfilled, " Ji bone of him shall not be broken." 

The passage here referred to is in Exodus, and has no more 
to do with Jesus than with the ass he rode upon to Jerusalem ; 
— nor yet so much, if a roasted jack-ass, like a roasted he-goat, 
might be eaten at a Jewish passover. It might be some conso- 
lation to an ass to know, that though his bones might be picked, 
they would not be broken. I go to state the case. 

The book of Exodus, in instituting the Jewish passover, in 
which they were to eat a he-lamb or a he-goat, says, chap. xii. 
ver. 5, u Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first 
year ; ye shall take it from the sheep or from the goats." 

pounds, each of the Bishop's bricks would weigh thirty thousand pounds ; and it would 
take about thirty cart loads of clay (one horse carts) to make one brick. 

But his account of the stones used in the building of Solomon's temple (volume 2d, 
page 211,) far exceeds his bricks of ten feet square in the walls of Babylon ; these 
are but brick-bats compared to them. 

The stones (says he) employed in the foundation , were in magnitude forty cubits, 
that is, above sixty feet, a cubit, says he, being somewhat more than one foot and a 
half, (a cubit is one foot nine inches) and the superstructure (says this Bishop) was 
worthy of such foundations. There were some atones, says he, of the whitest mar- 
ble forty-five cubits long, five cubits high, and six cubits broad. These are the di- 
mensions this Bishop has given, which ki measure of twelve inches to a foot, is 78 
feet nine inches long, 10 feet 6 inches broad, and 8 feet three inches thick, and con- 
tains 7,234 cubic feet. I now go to demonstrate the imposition of this Bishop. 

A cubic foot of water weighs sixty-two pounds and a half — The specific gravity 
of marble to water is as 2 1-2 is to one. The weight therefore of a cubic foot of mar- 
ble is 156 pounds, which multiplied by 7,234, the number of cubic feet in one of those 
stones, makes the weight of it to be 1,128,504 pounds, which is 503 tons. Allowing 
then a horse to draw about half a ton, it will require a thousand horses to draw one 
such stone on the ground ; how then were they to be lifted into the building b\ human 
hands 1 

The Bishop may talk of faith removing mountains, but all the faith of all the 
Bishops that ever lived could not remove one of those stones and their bodily strength 
given in. 

This Bishop also tells of great guns used by the Turks at the taking of Constan- 
tinople, one of which, he says, was drawn by seventy yoke of oxen, and by two thou- 
sand men. Volume 3d, page 117. 

The weight of a cannon that carries a ball of 43 pounds, which is the largest can- 
non that are cast, weighs 8,000 pounds, about three tons and a half, and may be 
drawn by three yoke of oxen. Any body may now calculate what the weight of the 
Bishop's great gun must be, that required seventy yoke of oxen to draw it. This 
Bishop beats Gulliver. 

When men give up the use of the divine gift of reason in writing on any subject, 
oe it religious or any thing else, there are no bounds to their extravagance, nj limit 
to their absurdities. 

The three volumes which this Bishop has written on what he calls the prophecies, 
contain above 1,290 pages, and he says in vol. 3, page 117, " I have studied brevity." 
This is as marvellous as the Bishop's great gun. 



THE PROPHECIES. 235 

The book, after stating some ceremonies to be used in killing 
and dressing it (for it was to be roasted, not boiled) says, ver. 43, 
" And the Lord said unto Moses and Aaron, this is the ordinance 
of the passover : there shall no stranger eat thereof ; but every 
man's servant that is bought for money, when thou hast circum- 
cised him, then shall he eat thereof. A foreigner shall not eat 
thereof. In one house shall it be eaten ; thou shalt not carry 
forth aught of the flesh thereof abroad out of the house ; neither 
shalt thou brake a bone thereof." 

We here see that the case as it stands in Exodus is a cere- 
mony and not a prophecy, and totally unconnected with Jesus' 
bones, or any part of him. 

John having thus filled up the measure of apostolic fable, con- 
cludes his book with something that beats all fable ; for he says 
at the last verse, " And there are also many other things which 
Jesus did, the which if they should be written every one, / sup- 
pose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should 
be written." 

This is what in vulgar life is called a thumper ; that is, not only 
a lie, but a lie beyond the line of possibility ; besides which it is 
an absurdity, for if they should be written in the world, the 
world would contain them. — Here ends the examination of the 
passages called prophecies. 



I have now, reader, gone through and examined all the pas- 
sages which the four books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, 
quote from fehe Old Testament, and call them prophecies of Je- 
sus Christ. When I first set down to this examination, I ex- 
pected to find cause for some censure, but little did I expect to 
find them so utterly destitute of truth, and of all pretensions to 
it, as I have shown them to be. 

The practice which the writers of those books employ is not 
more false than it is absurd. They state some trifling case of 
the person they call Jesus Christ, and then cut out a sentence 
from some passage of the Old Testament, and call it a prophecy 
of that case. But when the words thus cut out are restored to 
the place they are taken from, and read with the words before 
and after them, they give the lie to the New Testament. A 
short instance or two of this will suffice for the whole. 

They make Joseph to dream of an angel,. who informs him 
that Herod is dead, and tells him to come with the child out of 
Egypt. They then cut out a sentence from the book of Hosca, 
" Out of Egypt have I called my Son" and apply it as a prophecy 
in that case. 

The words " And called my Son out of Egypt" are in the Bi- 
ble ; — but v/hat of that? They are only part of a passage, and 



236 



EXAMINATION OF 



not a whole passage, and stand immediately connected with oth- 
er words, which show they refer to the children of Israel coming 
out of Egypt in the time of Pharaoh, and to the idolatry they 
committed afterwards. 

Again, they tell us that when the soldiers came to break the 
legs of the crucified persons, they found Jesus was already dead, 
and therefore did not break his. They then, with some altera- 
tion of the original, cut out a sentence from Exodus, " a bone of 
him shall mi be broken" and apply it as a prophecy of that case. 

The words, " JYeilher shall ye break a bone thereof" (for they 
have altered the text) are in the Bible — but what of that? They 
are, as in the former case, only part of a passage, and not a 
whole passage, and when read with the words they are immedi- 
ately joined to, show it is the bones of a he-lamb or a he-goat of 
which the passage speaks. 

These repeated forgeries and falsifications create a well-found- 
ed suspicion, that all the cases spoken of concerning the person 
called Jesus Christ are made cases, on purpose to lug in, and that 
very clumsily, some broken sentences from the Old Testament, 
and apply them as prophecies of those cases ; and that so far 
from his being the Son of God, he did not exist even as a man 
— that he is merely an imaginary or allegorical character, as 
Apollo, Hercules, Jupiter, and all the deities of antiquity were. 
There is no history written at the time Jesus Christ is said to 
have lived that speaks of the existence of such a person, even as 
a man. 

Did we find in any other book pretending to give a system of 
religion, the falsehoods, falsifications, contradictions, and absurd- 
ities, which are to be met with in almost every page of the Old and 
New Testament, all the priests of the present day, who supposed 
themselves capable, would triumphantly show their skill in criti- 
cism, and cry it down as a most glaring imposition. But since 
the books in question belong to their own trade and profession, 
they, or at least many of them, seek to stifle every inquiry into 
them, and abuse those who have the honesty and the courage to 
do it. 

When a book, as is the case with the Old and New Testament, 
is ushered into the world under the title of being the Word of 
God, it ought to be examined with the utmost strictness, in order 
to know if it has a well founded claim to that title or not, and 
whether we are or are not imposed upon : for as no poison is so 
dangerous as that which poisons the physic, so no falsehood is so 
fatal as that which is made an article of faith. 

This examination becomes more necessary, because when the 
New Testament was written, I might say invented, the art of 
printing was not known, and there were no other copies of the 
Old Testament than written copies. A written copy of that book 
would cost about as much as six hundred common printed bible*s 



THE PROPHECIES. 



237 



now cost. Consequently was in the hands but of very few per- 
sons; and these chiefly of the church. This gave an opportuni- 
ty to the writers of the New Testament to make quotations from 
the Old Testament as they pleased, and call them prophecies, 
with very little danger of being detected. Besides which, the 
terrors and inquisitorial fury of the church, like what they tell 
us of the naming sword that turned every way, stood sentry over 
the New Testament ; and time, which brings every thing else to 
light, has served to thicken the darkness that guards it from de- 
tection. 

Were the New Testament now to appear for the first time, ev- 
ery priest of the present day would examine it line by line, and 
compare the detached sentences it calls prophecies with the whole 
passages in the Old Testament from whence they are taken. 
Why then do they not make the same examination at this time, 
as they would make had the New Testament never appeared be- 
fore ? If it be proper and right, to make it in one case, it is equal- 
ly proper and right to do it in the other case. Length of time 
can make no difference in the right to do it at any time. But in- 
stead of doing this, they go on as their predecessors went on be- 
fore them, to tell the people there are prophecies of Jesus Christ, 
when the truth is there are none. 

They tell us that Jesus rose from the dead, and ascended into 
heaven. It is very easy to say so ; a great lie is as easily told 
as a little one. But if he had done so, those would have been 
the only circumstances respecting him that would have differed 
from the common lot of man ; and consequently the only case 
that would apply exclusively to him, as prophecy, would be some 
passage in the Old Testament that foretold such things of him. 
But there is not a passage in the Old Testament that speaks of 
a person, who, after being crucified, dead, and buried, should rise 
from the dead, and ascend into heaven. Our prophecy-mongers 
supply the silence the Old Testament guards upon such things, 
by telling us of passages they call prophecies, and that falsely so, 
about Joseph's dream, old clothes, broken bones, and such like 
trifling stuff. 

In writing upon this, as upon every other subject, I speak a 
-language full and intelligible. I deal not in hints and intimations. 
I have several reasons for this : First, that I may be clearly un- 
derstood. Secondly, that it may be seen I am in earnest. And 
thirdly, because it is an affront to truth to treat falsehood with 
complaisance. 

I will close this treatise with a subject I have already touched 
upon in the First Part of the Age of Reason. 

The world has been amused with the term revealed religion, 
and the generality of priests apply this term to the books called 
the Old and New Testament. The Mahometans apply the same 
term to the Koran. There is no man that believes in revealed 



238 



EXAMINATION OF 



religion stronger than I do ; but it is not the reveries of the Old 
and New Testament, nor of the Koran, that I dignify with that 
sacred title. That which is revelation to me, exists in something 
which no human mind can invent, no human hand can counterfeit 
or alter. 

The Word of God is the Creation we behold ; and this word 
of God revealeth to man all that is necessary for man to know 
of his Creator. 

Do we want to contemplate his power ? We see it in the im- 
mensity of his creation. 

Do we want to contemplate his wisdom? We see it in the un- 
changeable order by which the incomprehensible whole is gov- 
erned. 

Do we want to contemplate his munificence ? We see it in the 
abundance with which he fills the earth. 

Do we want to contemplate his mercy? We see it in his not 
withholding that abundance, even from the unthankful. 

Do we want to contemplate his will, so far as it respects man? 
The goodness he shows to all, is a lesson for our conduct to each 
other. 

In fine — Do we want to know what God is? Search not the 
book called the Scripture, which any human hand might make, or 
any impostor invent ; but the scripture called the Creation. 

When, in the first part of the Age of Reason, I called the 
Creation the true revelation of God to man, I did not know that 
any other person had expressed the same idea. But I lately met 
with the writings of Doctor Conyers Middleton, published the 
beginning of last century, in which he expresses himself in the 
same manner with respect to the creation, us I have done in the 
Age of Reason. 

He was principal librarian of the University of Cambridge, in 
England, which furnished him with extensive opportunities of 
reading, and necessarily required he should be well acquainted 
with the dead as well as the living languages. He was a man 
of a strong original mind ; had the courage to think for himself, 
and the honesty to speak his thoughts. 

He made a journey to Rome, from whence he wrote letters to 
show that the forms and ceremonies of the Romish Christian 
Church were taken from the degenerate state of the heathen my- 
thology, as it stood in the latter times of the Greeks and Romans. 
He attacked without ceremony the miracles which the church 
pretend to perform ; and in one of his treatises, he calls the cre- 
ation a revelation. The priests of England of that day, in order 
to defend their citadel by first defending its out-works, attacked 
him for attacking the Roman ceremonies ; and one of them cen- 
sures him for calling the creation a revelation — he thus replies to 
him : 

" One of them," says he, " appears to be scandalized by the 



THE PROPHECIES 



239 



title of revelation, which I have given to that discovery which 
God made of himself in the visible works of his creation. Yet 
it is no other than what the wise in all ages have given to it, who 
consider it as the most authentic and indisputable revelation 
which God has ever given of himself, from the beginning of the 
world to this day. It was this by which the first notice of him 
was revealed to the inhabitants of the earth, and by which alone 
it has been kept up ever since among the several nations of it. 
From this the reason of man was enabled to trace out his nature 
and attributes, and by a gradual deduction of consequences, to 
learn his own nature also, with all the duties belonging to it which 
relate either to God or to his fellow-creatures. This constitu- 
tion of things was ordained by God, as an universal law or rule 
of conduct to man — the source of all his knowledge — the test 
of all truth, by which all subsequent revelations, which are sup- 
posed to have been given by God in any other manner, must be 
tried, and cannot be received as divine any further than as they 
are found to tally and coincide with this original standard. 

" It was this divine law which I referred to in the passage above 
recited (meaning the passage on which they had attacked him) 
being desirous to excite the reader's attention to it, as it would 
enable him to judge more freely of the argument I was handling. 
For by contemplating this law, he would discover the genuine 
way which God himself has marked out to us for the acquisition of 
true knowledge ; not from the authority or reports of our fellow- 
creatures, but from the information of the facts and material ob- 
jects which in his providential distribution of worldly things, he 
hath presented to the perpetual observation of our senses. For 
as it was from these that his existence and nature, the most im- 
portant articles of all knowledge, were first discovered to man, 
so that grand discovery furnished new light towards tracing out 
the rest, and made all the inferior subjects of human knowledge 
more easily discoverable to us by the same method. 

66 1 had another view likewise in the same passages, and ap- 
plicable to the same end, of giving the reader a more enlarged 
notion of the question in dispute, who, by turning his thoughts to 
reflect on the works of the Creator, as they are manifested to us 
in this fabric of the world, could not fail to observe, that they are 
all of them great, noble, and suitable to the majesty of his na- 
ture, carrying with them the proofs of their origin, and showing 
themselves to be the production of an all-wise and Almighty be- 
ing ; and by accustoming his mind to these sublime reflections, 
he will be prepared to determine, whether those miraculous in- 
terpositions so confidently affirmed to us by the primitive fathers, 
can reasonably be thought to make a part in the grand scheme 
of the divine administration, or whether it be agreeable that God, 
who created all things by his will, and can give what turn to 
them he pleases by the same will, should, for the particular pur 



240 



EXAMINATION OV 



poses of his government ana the services of the church, descend 
to the expedient of visions and revelations, granted sometimes to 
boys for the instruction of the elders, and sometimes to women 
to settle the fashion and length of iheir veils, and sometimes to 
pastors of the Church, to enjoin them to ordain one man a lec- 
turer, another a priest ; — or that he should scatter a profusion of 
miracles around the stake of a martyr, yet all of them vain and 
insignificant, and without any sensible effect, either of preserv- 
ing the life, or .easing the sufferings of the saint ; or even of 
mortifying his persecutors, who were always left to enjoy the full 
triumph of their cruelty, and the poor martyr to expire in a mis- 
erable death. When these things, I say, are brought to the orig- 
inal test, and compared with the genuine and indisputable works 
of the Creator, how minute, how trifling, how contemptible must 
they be? — and how incredible must it be thought, that for the in- 
struction of his church, God should employ ministers so preca- 
rious, unsatisfactory, and inadequate, as the extasies of women 
and boys, and the visions of interested priests, which were de- 
rided at the very time by men of sense to whom they were pro- 
posed. 

" That this universal law (continues Middleton, meaning the 
law revealed in the works of the creation) was actually revealed 
to the heathen world long before the gospel was known, we learn 
from all the principal sages of antiquity, who made it the capital 
subject of their studies and writings. 

" Cicero has given us a short abstract of it in a fragment still 
remaining from one of his books on government, which I shall 
here transcribe in his own words, as they will illustrate my sense 
also, in the passages that appear so dark and dangerous to my 
antagonists." 

" The true law (says Cicero,) is right reason conformable to 
the nature of things, constant, eternal, diffused through all, which 
calls us to duty by commanding — deters us from sin by forbidding ; 
which never loses its influence with the good, nor ever preserves 
it with the wicked. This law cannot be over-ruled by any oth- 
er, nor abrogated in whole or in part ; nor can we be absolved 
from it either by the senate or by the people ; nor are we to seek 
any other comment or interpreter of it but itself ; nor can there 
be one law at Rome and another at Athens- — one now and anoth- 
er hereafter ; but the same eternal immutable law comprehends 
all nations at all times, under one common master and governor 
of all — God. He is the inventor, propounder, enacter of this 
law ; and whoever will not obey it must first renounce himself 
and throw off the nature of man ; by doing which, he will suffer 
the greatest punishments, though he should escape all the other 
torments which are commonly believed to be prepared for the 
wicked.' 5 Here ends the quotation from Cicero. 

" Our Doctors (continues Middieton) perhaps will look on this 



THE* PROPHECIES. 



241 



as rank deism ; but let them call it what they will, I shall ever 
avow and defend it as the fundamental, essential, and vital part 
of jail true religion." Here ends the quotation from Middleton. 

I have here given the reader two sublime extracts from men 
who lived in ages of time far remote from each other, but who 
thought alike. Cicero lived before the time in which they tell us 
Christ was born. Middleton may be called a man of our own 
time, as he lived within the same century with ourselves. 

In Cicero we see that vast superiority of mind, that sublimity 
of right reasoning and justness of ideas which man acquires, not 
by studying Bibles and Testaments, and the theology of schools, 
built thereon, but by studying the Creator in the immensity and 
unchangeable order of his creation, and the immutability of his 
law. " There cannot " says Cicero, " he one law now, and anoth- 
er hereafter ; but the same eternal immutable law comprehends all 
nations, at all times, under one common master and governor of all 
— God." But according to the doctrine of schools which priests 
have set up, we see one law, called the Old Testament, given in 
one age of the world, and another law, called the New Testa- 
ment, given in another age of the world. As all this is contra- 
dictory to the eternal immutable nature, and the unerring and 
unchangeable wisdom of God, we must be compelled to hold 
this doctrine to be fajse, and the old and the new law, called the 
Old and the New Testament, to be impositions, fables, and for- 
geries. 

In Middleton, we see the manly eloquence of an enlarged mind, 
and the genuine sentiments of a true believer in his Creator. 
Instead of reposing his faith on books, by* whatever name they 
may be called, whether Old Testament or New, he fixes the cre- 
ation as the great original standard by which every other thing 
called the word, or work of God, is to be tried. In this we have 
an indisputable scale, whereby to measure every word or work 
imputed to him. If the thing so imputed carries not in itself the 
evidence of the same Almightiness of power, of the same uner- 
ring truth and wisdom, and the same unchangeable order in all 
its parts, as are visibly demonstrated to our senses, and compre- 
hensible by our reason, in the magnificent fabric of the universe, 
that word or that work is not of God. Let then the two books 
called the Old and New Testament be tried by this rule, and the 
result will be, that the authors of them, whoever they were, will 
be convicted of forgery. 

The invariable principles, and unchangeable order, which reg- 
ulate the movements of all the parts that compose the universe, 
demonstrate both to our senses and our reason that its creator is 
a God of unerring truth. But the Old Testament, besides the 
numberless, absurd, and bagatelle stories it tells of God, repre- 
sents him as a God of deceit, a God not to be confided in. Eze- 
kiel makes God to say, chap. 14, "er. 9, " And if the prodiet be 
21 



242 



EXAMINATION OF 



deceived wnen he hath spoken a thing, I, the Lord have deceived 
that prophet." And at the 20th chap. ver. 25, he makes God, in 
speaking of the children of Israel to say, " Wlierefore I gave 
them statutes thai were not good, and judgments by which they could 
not live." 

This, so far from being the word of God, is horrid blasphemy 
against him. Reader, put thy confidence in thy God, and put no 
trust in the Bible. 

The same Old Testament, after telling us that God created the 
heavens and the earth in six days, makes the same almighty pow- 
er and eternal wisdom employ itself in giving directions how a 
priest's garments should be cut, and what sort of stuff they should 
be made of, and what their offerings should be, gold, and silver, 
and brass, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and 
goats hair, and rams' skins dyed red, and badger skins, &c. chap, 
xxv. ver. 3 ; and in one of the pretended prophecies I have just 
examined, God is made to give directions how they should kill, 
cook, and eat a he-lamb or a he-goat. And Ezekiel, chap. iv. to 
fill up the measure of abominable absurdity, makes God to order 
him to take u wheat, and barley ^ and beans, and lentiles, and millet, 
and fitches, $nd make a loaf or a cake thereof, and bake it with hu- 
man dung cmd eat it but as Ezekiel complained that this mess 
was too strong for his stomach, the matter was compromised from 
man's dung to cow dung, Ezekiel, chap. iv. Compare all this 
ribaldry, blasphemously called the word of God, with the Al- 
mighty power that created the universe, and whose eternal wis- 
dom directs and governs all its mighty movements, and we shall 
be at a loss to find a name sufficiently contemptible for it. 

In the promises which the Old Testament pretends that God 
made to his people, the same derogatory ideas of him prevail. It 
makes God to promise to Abraham, that his seed should be like 
the stars in heaven and the sand on the sea shore for multitude, 
and that he would give them the land of Canaan as their inherit- 
ance for ever. But observe, reader, how the performance of this 
promise was to begin, and then ask thine own reason, if the wis- 
dom of God, whose power is equal to his will, could, consistently 
with that power and that wisdom, make such a promise. 

The performance of the promise was to begin, according to that 
book, by four hundred years of bondage and affliction. Genesis, 
chap. xv. ver. 13, a Jind God said unto Abraham, know of a surety, 
that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not. theirs, and 
shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years" 
This promise then to Abraham, and his seed for ever, to inherit 
the land of Canaan, had it been a fact instead of a fable, was to 
operate, in the commencement of it, as a curse upon all the peo- 
ple and their children, and their children's children for four hun- 
dred years. 



THE PROPHECIES. 



243 



But the-fcase is, the book of Genesis was written after the bond- 
age in Egypt had taken place ; and in order to get rid of the dis- 
grace of the Lord's chosen people, as they called- themselves, be- 
ing in bondage to the Gentiles, they make God to be the author 
of it, and annex it as a condition to a pretended promise ; as if 
God, in making that promise, had exceeded his power in perform- 
ing it, and consequently his wisdom in making it, and was obliged 
to compromise with them for one half, and with the Egyptians, to 
whom they were to be in bondage, for the other half. 

Without degrading my own reason by bringing those wretched 
and contemptible tales into a comparative view, with the Almighty 
power and eternal wisdom, which the Creator hath demonstrated 
to our senses in the creation of the universe, I will confine myself 
to say, that if we compare them with the divine and forcible senti- 
ments of Cicero, the result will be, that the human mind has de- 
generated by believing them. Man in a state of grovelling super- 
stition, from which he has not courage to rise, looses the energy 
of his mental powers. 

I will not tire the reader with more observations on the Old 
Testament. 

As to the New Testament, if it be brought and tried by that 
standard, which, as Middleton wisely says, God has revealed to 
our senses, of his Almighty power and wisdom in the creation and 
government of the visible universe, it will be found equally as 
false, paltry, and absurd, as the Old. 

Without entering, in this place, into any other argument, that 
the story of Christ is of human invention, and not of divine origin, 
I will confine myself to show that it is derogatory to God, by the 
contrivance of it : because the means it supposes God to use, are 
not adequate to the end to be obtained ; and therefore are derog- 
atory to the Almightiness of his power, and the eternity of his 
wisdom. 

The New Testament supposes that God sent his Son upon 
earth to make a new covenant with man ; which the church calls 
the covenant of Grace, and to instruct mankind in a new doctrine, 
which it calls Faith, meaning thereby, not faith in God, for Cicero 
and all true Deists always had and always will have this ; but 
faith in the person called Jesus Christ, and that whoever had not 
this faith should, to use the words of the New Testament, be 
DAMNED. 

Now, if this were a fact, it is consistent with that attribute of 
God, called his Goodness, that no time should be lost in letting 
poor unfortunate man know it ; and as that goodness was united to 
Almighty power, and that power to Almighty wisdom, all the means 
existed in the hand of the Creator to make it known immediately 
over the whole earth, in a manner suitable to the Almightiness of 
his divine nature, and with evidence that would not leave man in 
doubt ; for it is always incumbent upon us, in all cases, to believe 



244 



EXAMINATION OF 



that the Almighty always acts, not by imperfect means as imper- 
fect man acts, but consistently with his Almightiness. It is this 
only that can become the infallible criterion by which we can pos- 
sibly distinguish the works of God from the works of man. 

Observe now, reader, how the comparison between the sup- 
posed mission of Christ, on the belief or disbelief of which they 
say man was to be saved or damned — observe, I say, how the 
comparison between this and the Almighty power and wisdom 
of Gcd demonstrated to our senses in the visible creation, goes 

OS. 

The Old Testament tells us that God created the heavens and 
the earth, and every thing therein, in six days. The term six 
days is ridiculous enough when applied to God ; but leaving out 
that absurdity, it contains the idea of Almighty power acting 
unitedly with Almighty wisdom, to produce an immense work$ 
that of the creation of the universe and every thing therein, in a 
short time. 

Now as the eternal salvation of a man is of much greater im- 
portance, than his creation, and as that salvation depends, as the 
New Testament tells us, on man's knowledge of, and belief in 
the person called Jesus Christ, it necessarily follows from our 
belief in the goodness and justice of God, and our knowledge of 
his almighty power and wisdom, as demonstrated in the creation, 
that all this, if true, would be made known to all parts of the 
world, in as little time, at least, as was employed in making the 
world. To suppose the Almighty would pay greater regard and 
attention to the creation and organization of inanimate matter, 
than he would to the salvation of innumerable millions of souls, 
which himself had created, " as the im age of himself " is to offer 
an insult to his goodness and his justice. 

Now observe, reader, how the promulgation of this pretended 
salvation by a knowledge of, and a belief in Jesus Christ went 
on, compared with the work of creation. 

In the first place, it took longer time to make a child than to 
make the world, for nine months were passed away and totally 
lost in a state of pregnancy ; which is more than forty times 
longer time than God employed in making the world, according 
to the Bible account. Secondly ; several years of Chrtst's life 
were lost in a state of human infancy. But the universe was 
in maturity the moment it existed. Thirdly ; Christ, as Luke 
asserts, was thirty years old before he began to preach what they 
call his mission. Millions of souls died in the mean time with- 
out knowing it. Fourthly ; it was above three hundred years 
from that time before the book called the New Testament was 
compiled into a written copy, before which time there was no 
such book. Fifthly ; it was above a thousand years after that, 
before it could be circulated ; because neither Jesus nor his 
apostles had knowledge of, or were inspired with the art of print- 



THE PROPHECIES. 



245 



ing : and consequently, as the means for making it universally 
known did not exist, the means were not equal to the end, and 
therefore it is not the work of God, 

I will here subjoin the nineteenth Psalm, which is truly deist- 
ical, to show how universally and instantaneously the works of 
God make themselves known, compared with this pretended sal- 
vation by Jesus Christ. 

Psalm 19th. " The heavens declare the glory of God, and 
the firmament showeth his handy Work — Day unto day uttereth 
speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge — There is no 
speech nor language where their voice is not heard — Their line 
is g^.ne out through all the earth, and their words to the end of 
the world. In them hath he set a chamber for the Sun. Which 
is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as 
a strong man to run a race — his going forth is from the end of 
the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it, and there is noth- 
ing hid from the heat thereof. 3 ' 

Now, had the news of salvation by Jesus Christ been inscrib- 
ed on the face of the Sun and the Moon, in characters that all 
nations would have understood, the whole earth had known it in 
twenty-four hours, and all nations would have believed it ; where- 
as though it is now almost two thousand years since, as they tell 
us, Christ came upon earth, not a twentieth part of the people of 
the earth know any thing of it, and among those who do, the 
wiser part do not believe it. 

I have now reader gone through all the passages called proph- 
ecies of Jesus Christ, and shown there is no such thing. 

I have examined the story told of Jesus Christ, and compared 
the several circumstances of it with that revelation, which, as 
Middleton wisely says, God has made to us of his Power and 
Wisdom in the structure of the universe, and by which every 
thing ascribed to him is to be tried. The result is, that the story 
of Christ has not one trait, either in its character, or in the means 
employed, that bears the least resemblance to the power and 
wisdom of God, as demonstrated in the creation of the universe. 
All the means are human means, slow, uncertain and inadequate 
to the accomplishment of the end proposed, and therefore the 
whole is a fabulous invention, and undeserving of credit. 

The priests of the present day profess to believe it. They 
gain their living by it, and they exclaim against something they 
call infidelity. I will define what it is. He that believes in 

THE STORY OF CHRIST IS AN INFIDEL TO GOD. 

THOMAS PAINE. 



APPENDIX. 



CONTRADICTORY DOCTRINES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 

BETWEEN 

MATTHEW AND MARK 



In the New Testament, Mark, chap. xvi. ver. 16, it is said, 
" He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved ; he that be- 
lieveth not shall be damned." This is making salvation, or in 
other words, the happiness of man after this life, to depend en- 
tirely on believing, or on what Christians call faith. 

But the 25th chapter of The Gospel according to Matthew 
makes Jesus Christ to preach a direct contrary doctrine to The 
Gospel according to Mark ; for it makes salvation, or the future 
happiness of man, to depend entirely on good works ; and those 
good works are not works done to God, for he needs them not, 
but good works done to man. 

The passage referred to in Matthew is the account there giv- 
en of what is called the last day, or the day of judgment, where 
the whole world is represented to be divided into two parts, the 
righteous and the unrighteous, metaphorically called the sheep 
and the goats. 

To the one part called the righteous, or the sheep, it says, 
a Come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared 
for you from the beginning of the world — for I was an hungered 
and ye gave me meat — I was thirsty and ye gave me drink — I 
was a stranger and ye took me in — Naked and ye clothed me — 
I was sick and ye visited me — I was in prison and ye came unto 
me. 

" Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when 
saw we thee an hungered and fed thee, or thirsty and gave thee 
drink? When saw we thee a stranger and took thee in, or naked 
and clothed thee ? Or when saw we thee sick and in prison, and 
came unto thee ? 

" And the king shall answer and say unto them, verily I say 
unto you, in as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these 
my brethren, ye have done it unto me." 

Here is nothing about believing in Christ — nothing about that 
phantom of the imagination called Faith. The works here spo- 
ken of, are works of humanity and benevolence, or, in other 
words-, an endeavour to make God's creation happy. Here is 
nothing about preaching and making long prayers, as if God 



£48 



APPENDIX. 



must be dictated to by man ; nor about building churches and 
meetings, nor hiring priests to pray and preach in them. Here 
is nothing about predestination, that lust which some men have 
for damning one another. Here is nothing - about baptism, 
whether by sprinkling or plunging, nor about any of those cere- 
monies for which the Christian church has been righting, perse- 
cuting, and burning each other, ever since the Christian church 
began. 

If it be asked, why do not priests preach the doctrine contain- 
ed in this chapter ? The answer is easy ; — they are not fond of 
practising it themselves. It does not answer for their trade. 
They had rather get than give. Charity with them begins and 
ends at home. 

Had it been said, Come ye blessed, ye have been liberal in pay- 
ing the preachers of the word, ye have contributed largely towards 
building churches and meeting-Iwuses, there is not a hired priest 
in Christendom but would have thundered it continually in the 
ears of his congregation. But as it is altogether on good works 
done to men, the priests pass over it in silence, and they will 
abuse me for bringing it into notice. 

THOMAS PAINE. 



MY 



PRIVATE THOUGHTS 

ON A 

FUTURE STATE. 



I have said in the first part of the Age of Reason, that u l 
hope for happiness after this life." This hope is comfortable to 
me, and I presume not to go beyond the comfortable idea of 
hope, with respect to a future state. 

I consider myself in the hands of my Creator, and that he 
will dispose of me after this life, consistently with his justice and 
goodness. I leave all these matters to him as my Creator and 
friend, and I hold it to be presumption in man to make an arti- 
cle of faith as to what the Creator will do with us hereafter. 

I do not believe because a man and a woman make a child, 
that it imposes on the Creator the unavoidable obligation of 
keeping the being so made in eternal existence hereafter. It is 
in his power to do so, or not to do so, and it is not in our power 
to decide which he will do. 

The book called the New Testament, which I hold to be fab- 
ulous, and have shown to be false, givesran account in the 25th 
chapter of Matthew, of what is there called the last day, or the 
day of judgment. The whole world, according to that account, 
is divided into two parts, the righteous and the unrighteous, figu- 
ratively called the sheep and the goats. They are then to receive 
their sentence. To the one, figuratively called the sheep, it 
says, " Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom pre- 
pared for you from the foundation of the world." To the other, 
figuratively called the goats, it says, " Depart from me, ye curs- 
ed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." 

Now the case is, the world cannot be thus divided — the moral 
world, like the physical world, is composed of numerous degrees 
of character, running imperceptibly one into the other, in such 
a manner that no fixed point of division can be found in either. 
That point is no where, or is tevery where. The whole world 
might be divided into two parts numerically, but not as to moral 
| character ; and therefore the metaphor of dividing them, as 
F sheep and goats can be divided, whose difference is marked by 
their external figure, is absurd. All sheep are still sheep ; all 
goats are still goats; it is their physical nature to be so. But 
one part of the world are not all good alike, nor the other part 



250 



APPENDIX. 



all wicked alike. There are some exceedingly good ; others ex- 
ceedingly wicked. There is another description of men who 
cannot be ranked with either the one or the other — they belong 
neither to the sheep nor the goats. 

My own opinion is, that those whose lives have been spent in 
doing good, and endeavouring to make their fellow-mortals hap- 
py, for this is the only way in which we can serve God, will be 
happy hereafter ; and that the very wicked will meet with some 
punishment. This is my opinion. It is consistent with my idea 
of God's justice, and with the reason that God has given me. 

THOMAS PAINE. 



EXTRACT FROM A REPLY 

TO THE 

BISHOP OF LLAJVDAFF. 



[This extract from Mr. Paine's reply to Watson, Bishop of LlandafF, was given by 
him, not long before his death, to Mrs. Ealmer, widow of Elihu Palmer. He retain- 
ed the work entire, and therefore must have transcribed this part, which was unusual 
for him to do. Probably he had discovered errors, which he corrected in the copy. 
Mrs. Palmer presented it to the editor of a periodical work entitled the Theophilan- 
thropist, published in New-York, in which rt appeared in 1810.] 



GENESIS. 

The Bishop says, "the oldest book in the world is Genesis." 
This is mere assertion ; he offers no proof of it, and I go to con- 
trovert it, and to show that the book of Job, which is not a He- 
brew book, but is a book of the Gentiles, translated into Hebrew, 
is much older than the book of Genesis. 

The book of Genesis means the book of Generations ; to which 
are prefixed two chapters, the first and second, which contain two 
different cosmoganies, that is, two different accounts of the crea- 
tion of the world, written by different persons, as I have shown 
in the preceding part of this work.* 

The firs! cosmogany begins at the first verse of the first chap- 
ter, and ends at the end of the third verse of the second chapter ; 
for the adverbial conjunction thus, with which the second chapter 
begins, shows those three verses to belong to the first chapter. 
The second cosmogany begins at the fourth verse of the second 
chapter, and ends with that chapter. 

In the first cosmogany the name of God is used without any 
epithet joined to it, and is repeated thirty-five times. In the se- 
cond cosmogany it is always the Lord God, which is repeated 
eleven times. These two different styles of expression show these 
two chapters to be the work of two different persons, and the con- 
tradictions they contain, show they cannot be the work of one and 
the same person, as I have already shown. 

The third chapter, in which the style of Lord God is continued 
in every instance, except in the supposed conversation between 
the woman and the serpent (for in every place in that chapter 
where the writer speaks, it is always the Lord God) shows this 
chapter to belong to the second cosmoganv. 

* See Letter to Erskine, page 161. 



252 



REPLY £0 THE BISHOP 



This chapter gives an account of what is called the fall of man, 
which is no other than a fable borrowed from, and constructed 
upon the religion of Zoroaster, or the Persians, or the annual pro- 
gress of the sun through the twelve signs of the Zodiac. It is the 
fall of the year, the approach and evil of winter, announced by the 
ascension of the autumnal constellation of the serpent of the Zo- 
diac, and not the moral jfaZZ of man that is the key of the allegory, 
and of the fable in Genesis borrowed from it. 

The fail of man in Genesis, is said to have been produced by 
eating a certain fruit, generally taken to be an apple. The fall 
of the year is the season for gathering and eating the new apples 
of that year. The allegory, therefore, holds with respect to the 
fruit, which it would not have done had it been an early summer 
fruit. It holds also with respect to place. The tree is said to 
have been placed in the midst of the garden. But why in the 
midst of the garden more than in any other place? The solution 
of the allegory gives the answer to this question, which is, that the 
fall of the year, when apples and other autumnal fruits are ripe, 
and when days and nights are of equal length, is the mid-season 
between summer and winter. 

It holds also with respect to clothing, and tho temperature of 
the air. It is said in Genesis, chap. iii. ver. 21, Unto Mam and 
his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them." 
But why are coats of skins mentioned? This cannot be under- 
stood as referring to any thing of the nature of moral evil. The 
solution of the allegory gives again the answer to this question, 
which is, that the evil of winter, which follows the fall of the year, 
fabulously called in Genesis the fall of man, makes warm clothing 
necessary. 

But of these things I shall speak fully when I come in another 
part to treat of the ancient religion of the Persians, and compare 
it with the modern religion of the New Testament.* At present, 
I shall confine myself to the comparative antiquity of the books 
of Genesis and Job, taking, at the same time, whatever I may find 
in my way with respect to the fabulousness of the book of Gene- 
sis ; for if what is called the fall of man in Genesis be fabulous or 
allegorical, that which is called the redemption in the New Tes- 
tament cannot be a fact. It is morally impossible, and impossi- 
ble also in the nature of things, that moral good can redeem phy- 
sical evil. I return to the Bishop. 

If Genesis be, as the Bishop asserts, the eldest book in the 
world, and, consequently, the oldest and first written book of 
the Bible, and if the extraordinary things related in it, such as 
the creation of the world in six days, the tree of life, and of good 
and evil, the story of Eve and the talking serpent, the fall of man 
and his being turned out of paradise, were facts, or even believed 
by the Jews to be facts, they would be referred to as fundamen- 
* Not Published. 



OF LLANDAFF. 



tal matters, and that very frequently in. the books of the Bible 
that were written by various authors afterwards ; whereas there 
is not a book, chapter, or verse of the Bible, from the time Mo- 
ses is said to have written the book of Genesis, to the book of 
Malachi, the last book in the Bible, including a space of more 
than a thousand years, in which there is any mention made of 
these things, or any of them, nor are they so much as alluded to. 
How will the Bishop solve this difficulty, which stands as a cir- 
cumstantial contradiction to his assertion ? 
There are but two ways of solving it : 

First, that the book of Genesis is not an ancient book ; that 
it has been written by some (now) unknown person after the re- 
turn of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, about a thousand 
years after the time that Moses is said to have lived, and put as 
a preface or introduction to the other books, when they were 
formed into a canon in the time of the second temple, and, there- 
fore not having existed before that time, none of these things 
mentioned in it could be referred to in those books. 

Secondly, that admitting Genesis to have been written by Mo- 
ses, the Jews did not believe the things stated in it to be true, 
and, therefore, as they could not refer to them as facts, they 
would not refer to them as fables. The first of these solutions 
goes against the antiquity of the book, and the second against its 
authenticity, and the Bishop may take which he pleases. 

But be the author of Genesis whoever he may, there is abund- 
ant evidence to show, as well from the early Christian writers, 
as from the Jews themselves, that the things stated in that book 
were not believed to be facts. Why they have been believed as 
facts since that time, when better and fuller knowledge existed 
on the case, than is known now, can be accounted for only on 
the imposition of priestcraft. 

Augustine, one of the early champions of the Christian church, 
acknowledges in his City of God, that the adventure of Eve and 
the serpent, and the account of Paradise, were generally consid- 
ered as fiction or allegory. He regards them as allegory him- 
self, without attempting to give any explanation ; but he supposes 
that a better explanation might be found than those that had 
been offered. 

Origen, another early champion of the church, says, " What 
man of good sense can ever persuade himself that there were a 
first, a second, and a third day, and that each of these days had 
a night, when there were yet neither sun, moon, nor stars. What 
man can be stupid enough to believe that God, acting the part 
of a gardener, had planted a garden in the east, that the tree of 
life was a real tree, and that its fruit had the virtue of making 
those who eat of it live for ever ?" 

Marmonides, one of the most learned and celebrated of the 
Jewish Rabbins, who lived in the eleventh century (about seven 
22 



254 



REPLY TO THE BISHOP 



or eight hundred years ago) and to whom the Bishop refers in 
his answer to me, is very explicit, in his book entitled More Ne- 
bachim, upon the non-reality of the things stated in the account 
of the Creation in the book of Genesis. 

" We ought not (says he) to understand, nor take according 
to the letter, that which is written in the book of the Creation, nor 
to have the same ideas of it with common men ; otherwise, our 
ancient sages would not have recommended, with so much care, 
to conceal the sense of it, and not to raise the allegorical veil 
which envelopes the truth it contains. The book of Genesis, 
taken according to the letter, gives the most absurd and the most 
extravagant ideas of the Divinity. Whoever shall find out the 
sense of it, ought to restrain himself from divulging it. It is a 
maxim which all our sages repeat, and above all with respect to 
the work of six days. It may happen that some one, with the 
aid he may borrow from others, may hit upon the meaning of it. 
In that case, he ought to impose silence upon himself ; or if he 
speak of it, he ought to speak obscurely, and in an enigmatical 
manner, as I do myself, leaving the rest to be found out by those 
who can understand." 

This is, certainly, a very extraordinary declaration of Marmo- 
nides, taking all the parts of it. 

First, he declares, that the account of the Creation in the book 
of Genesis is not a fact ; that to believe it to be a fact, gives the 
most absurd and the most extravagant ideas of the Divinity. 

Secondly, that it is an allegory. 

Thirdly, that the allegory has a concealed secret. 

Fourthly, that whoever can find the secret ought not to tell it. 

It is this last part that is the most extraordinary. Why all 
this care of the Jewish Rabbins, to prevent what they call the 
concealed meaning, or the secret from being known, and if known, 
to prevent any of their people from telling it ? It certainly must 
be something which the Jewish nation are afraid or ashamed the 
world should know. It must be something personal to them as 
a people, and not a secret of a divine nature, which the more it is 
known, the more it increases the glory of the Creator, and the 
gratitude and happiness of man. It is not God's secret, but their 
own, they are keeping. I go to unveil the secret. 

The case is, the Jews have stolen their cosmogany, that is, 
their account of the Creation, from the cosmogany of the Per- 
sians, contained in the book of Zoroaster, the Persian lawgiver, 
and brought it with them when they returned from captivity by 
the benevolence of Cyrus, King of Persia ; for it is evident, 
from the silence of all the books of the Bible upon the subject 
of the Creation, that the Jews had no cosmogany before that 
time. If they had a cosmogany from the time of Moses, some 
of their judges who governed during more than four hundred 
vears, or of their kings, the Davids and Solomons of their day, 



OP LL AND AFP. 



255 



who governed nearly five hundred years, or of their prophets 
and psalmists, who lived in the meantime, would have mention- 
ed it. It would, either as fact or fable, have been the grandest 
of all subjects for a. psalm. It would have suited to a tittle the 
ranting, poetical genius of Isaiah, or served as a cordial to the 
gloomy Jeremiah. But not one word nor even a whisper, does 
any of the Bible authors give upon the subject. 

To conceal the theft, the Rabbins of the second temple have 
published Genesis as a book of Moses, and have enjoined secresy 
to all their people, who by travelling or otherwise might happen 
to discover from whence the cosmogany was borrowed, not to 
tell it. The evidence of circumstances is often unanswerable, 
and there is no other than this which I have given, that goes to 
the whole of the case, and this does. 

Diogenes Laertius, an ancient and respectable author, whom 
the Bishop, in his answer to me, quotes on another occasion, has 
a passage that corresponds with the solution here given. In 
speaking of the religion of the Persians as promulgated by their 
priests or magi, he says, the Jewish Rabbins were the succes- 
sors of their doctrine. Having thus spoken on the plagiarism, 
and on the non-reality of the book of Genesis, I will give some 
additional evidence that Moses is not the author of that book. 

Eben-Ezra, a celebrated Jewish author, who lived about seven 
hundred years ago, and whom the Bishop allows to have been a 
man of great erudition, has made a great many observations, too 
numerous to be repeated here, to show that Moses was not, and 
could not be, the author of the book of Genesis, nor any of the 
five books that bear his name. 

Spinosa, another learned Jew, who lived about a hundred and 
thirty years ago, recites, in his treatise on the- ceremonies of the 
Jews, ancient and modern, the observations of Eben-Ezra, to 
which he adds many others, to show that Moses is not the author 
of these books. He so says, and shows his reasons for say- 
ing it, that the Bible did not exist as a book, till the time of the 
Maccabees, which was more than a hundred^ years after the 
return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity. 

In the second part of the Age of Reason, I have, among oth- 
er things, referred to nine verses in the 36th chapter of Genesis, 
beginning at the 31st verse, " These are the kings that reigned 
in Edom, before there reigned any king over the children of 
Israel," which it is impossible could have been written by Moses, 
or in the time of Moses, and could not have been written till 
after the Jew kings began to reign in Israel, which was not till 
several hundred years after the time of Moses. 

The Bishop allows this, and says, " I think you say true." 
But .he then quibbles, and says, that a small addition to a book 
does not destroy either the genuineness or authenticity of the 
whole book. This is priestcraft. These verses do not stand 



£56 



REPLY TO THE BISHOP 



in the book as an addition to it, but as making a part of the 
whole book, and which k is impossible that Moses could write. 
The Bishop would reject the antiquity of any other book if it 
could be proved from the words of the book itself that a part of 
it could not have beeu written till several hundred years after the 
reputed author of it was dead. He would call such a book a 
forgery. I am authorized, therefore, to call the book of Gene- 
sis a forgery. 

Combining, then, all the foregoing circumstances together re- 
specting the antiquity and authenticity of the book of Genesis, a 
conclusion will naturally follow therefrom; those circumstances 
are, 

First, that certain parts of the book cannot possibly have been 
written by Moses, and that the other parts carry no evidence of 
having been written by him. 

Secondly, the universal silence of all the following books of 
the Bible, for about a thousand years, upon the extraordinary 
things spoken of in Genesis, such as the creation of the world 
in six days — the garden of Eden — the tree of knowledge — the 
tree of life — the story of Eve and the serpent — the fall of man, 
and his being turned out of this fine garden, together with Noah's 
flood, and the tower of Babel, 

Thirdly, the silence of all the books of the Bible upon even 
the name of Moses, from the book of Joshua until the second 
book of Kings, which was not written till after the captivity, for 
it gives an account of the captivity, a period of about a thou- 
sand years. Strange that a man who is proclaimed as the histo- 
rian of the Creation, the privy-counsellor and confidant of the 
Almighty — the legislator of the Jewish nation, and the founder 
of its religion ; strange, I say, that even the name of such a 
man should not find a place in their books for a thousand years, 
if they knew or believed any thing about him, or the books he is 
said to have written. 

Fourthly, the opinion of some of the most celebrated of the 
Jewish commentators, that Mo^es is not the author ot the book 
of Genesis, founded on the reason's given for that opinion. 

Fifthly, the opinion of the early Christian writers, and of the 
great champion of Jewish literature, Marmonides, that the book 
of Genesis is not a book of facts. 

Sixthly, the silence imposed by all the Jewish Rabbins, and by 
Marmonides himself, upon the Jewish nation, not to speak of any 
thing they may happen to know, or discover, respecting the cos- 
mogany (or creation of the world) in the book of Genesis. 

From these circumstances the following conclusions offer : 

First, that the book of Genesis is not a book of facts. 

Secondly, that as no mention is made throughout the Bible of 
any of the extraordinary things related in Genesis, that it has not 
been written till after the other books were written, and put as a 



OF LLANDAFF. 257 

preface to the Bible. < Every one knows that a preface to a book, 
though it stands first, is the last written. * 

Thirdly, that the silence imposed by all the Jewish Rabbins j 
and by Marmonides upon the Jewish nation, to keep silence up- 
on every thing related in their cosmogany, evinces a secret they 
are not willing should be known. The secret therefore explains 
itself to be, that when the Jews were in captivity in Babylon and 
Persia, they became acquainted with the cosmogany of the Per- 
sians, as registered in the Zend-Avesta, of Zoroaster, the Per- 
sian lawgiver, * which after their return from captivity they man- 
ufactured and modelled as their own, and anti-dated it by giving 
to it the name of Moses. The case admits of no other explana- 
tion. From all which it appears that the book of Genesis, in- 
stead of being the oldest book in the zoorldj as the Bishop calls it, 
lias been the last written book of the Bible, and that the cosmog- 
any it contains has been manufactured. 

On the Names in the Book of Genesis, 

Every thing in Genesis serves as evidence or symptom, that 
the book has been composed in some late period of the Jewish 
nation. Even the names mentioned in it serve to this purpose. 

Nothing is more common or more natural, than to name the 
children of succeeding generations, after the names of those who 
had been celebrated in some former generation. This holds 
good with respect to all the peopie, and all the histories we know 
of, and it does not hold good with the Bible. There must be 
some cause for this. 

This book of Genesis tells us of a man whom it calls Adam, 
and of his sons Abel and Seth ; of Enoch, who lived 365 years 
(it is exactly the number of days in a year,) and that then God 
took him up. It has the appearance of being taken from some 
allegory of the Gentiles on the commencement and termination 
of the year, by the progress of the sun through the twelve signs 
of the Zodiac, on which the allegorical religion of the Gentiles 
was founded. 

It tells us of Methuselah who lived 969 years, and of a long 
train of other names in the fifth chapter. It then passes on to a 
man whom it calls Noah, and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet : 
then to Lot, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and his sons, with which 
the book of Genesis finishes. 

All these, according to the account given in that book, were 
the most extraordinary and celebrated of men. They were, 
moreover, heads of families. Adam was the father of the world. 
Enoch, for his righteousness, was taken up to heaven. Methu- 
selah lived to almost a thousand years. He was the son of 
Enoch, the man of 365, the number of days in a year. It has 
the apDearance of being the continuation of an allegory on the 
22* 



258 



REPLY TO THE BISHOP 



365 days of a year, and its abundant productions. Noah was 
selected from all the world to be preserved when it Was drowned, 
and became the second father of the world. Abraham was the 
father of the faithful multitude. Isaac and Jacob were the in- 
heritors of his fame, and the last was the father of the twelve 
tribes. 

Now, if these very wonderful men and their names, and the 
book that records them, had been known by the Jews before the 
Babylonian captivity, those names would have been as common 
among the Jews before that period as they have been since. We 
now hear of thousands of Abrahams, Isaacs, and Jacobs among 
the Jews, but there were none of that name before the Babyloni- 
an captivity. The Bible does not mention one, though from the 
time that Abraham is said to have lived, to the time of the Baby- 
lonian captivity, is about 1400 years. 

How is it to be accounted for that there have been so many 
thousands, and perhaps hundreds of thousands of Jews of the 
names of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob since that period, and not 
one before ? It can be accounted for but one way, which is, 
that before the Babylonian captivity the Jews had no such books 
as Genesis, nor knew any thing of the names and persons it men- 
tions, nor of the things it relates, and that the stories in it have 
been manufactured since that time. From the Arabic name 
Ibrahim (which is the manner the Turks write that name to this 
day) the J ews have, most . probably, manufactured their Abra- 
ham. 

I will advance my observations a point further, and speak of 
the names of Moses and Jiaron y mentioned for the first time in 
the book of Exodus. There are now, and have continued to be 
from the time of the Babylonian captivity, or soon after it, thou- 
sands of Jews of the names of Moses and Aaron, and we read 
not of any of that name before that time. The Bible does not 
mention one. The direct inference from this is, that the Jews 
knew of no such book as Exodus before the Babylonian captivi- 
ty. In fact, that it did not exist before that time, and that it is 
only since the book has been invented, that the names of Moses 
and Aaron have been common among the Jews. 

It is applicable to the purpose to observe, that the picturesque 
work, called Mosaic-ivork, spelled the same as you would say the 
Mosaic account of the Creation, is not derived from the word 
Moses , but from Muses (the Muses,) because of the variegated and 
picturesque pavement in the temples dedicated to the Muses. This 
carries a strong implication that the name Moses is drawn from the 
same source, and that he is not a real but an allegorical person, as 
Marmonides describes what is called the Mosaic account of the 
Creation to be. 

I will go a point still further. The J ews now know the book of 
Genesis, and the names of all the persons mentioned in the first 



OF LLANDAFF, 



259 



ten chapters of that book, from Adam to Noah: yet we do not hear 
(I speak for myself) of any Jew, of the present day, of the name 
of Adam, Abel, Seth, Enoch, Methuselah, Noah, # Shem, Ham, 
or Japhet, (names mentioned in the first ten chapters) though 
these were, according to the account in that book, the most extra- 
ordinary of all the names that make up the catalogue of the Jew- 
ish chronology. 

The names the Jews now adopt, are those that are mentioned 
in Genesis after the tenth chapter, as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, &c. 
How then does it happen, that they do not adopt the names found 
in the first ten chapters ? Here is evidently a line of division 
drawn between the first ten chapters of Genesis, and the remain- 
ing chapters, with respect to the adoption of names. There must 
be some cause for this, and I go to offer a solution of the problem. 

The reader will recollect the quotation I have already made 
from the Jewish Rabbin Marmonides, wherein he says, u We 
ought not to understand nor to take according to the letter that 
which is written in the book of the Creation. It is a maxim (says 
he) which all our sages repeat above all, with respect to the work 
of six days." 

The qualifying expression above all^ implies there are other 
parts, of the book, though not so important, that ought not to be 
understood or taken according to the letter, and as the Jews do not 
adopt the names mentioned in the first ten chapters, it appears evi- 
dent those chapters are included in the injunction not to take them 
in a literal sense, or according to the letter ; from which it fol- 
lows, that the persons or characters mentioned in the first ten chap- 
ters, as Adam, Abel, Seth, Enoch, Methuselah, and so on to Noah, 
are not real but fictitious or allegorical persons, and therefore the 
Jews do not adopt their names into their families. If they affixed 
the same idea of reality to them as they do to those that follow af- 
ter the tenth chapter, the names of Adam, Abel, Seth, 8lc. would 
be as common among the Jews of the present day, as are those of 
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Aaron. 

In the superstition they have been in, scarcely a Jew family 
would have been without an Enoch, as a presage of his going to 
heaven as ambassador for the whole famijy. Every mother who 
wished that the days of her son might be long in the land would call 
him Methuselah ; and all the Jews that might have to traverse the 
ocean would be named Noah, as a charm against shipwreck and 
drowning. 

This is domestic evidence against the book of Genesis, which, 
joined to the several kinds of evidence before recited, show the 
book of Genesis not to be older than the Babylonian captivity, and 
to be fictitious. I proceed to fix the character and antiquity of 
the book of 



* Noah is an exception; there are of that name among the Jews. Editor. 



£60 



REPLY TO THE BISHOP 



JOB* 

The book of Job has not the least appearance of being a book 
of the Jews, and though printed among the books of the Bible, 
does not belong to it. There is no reference in it to any Jewish 
law or ceremony. On the contrary, all the internal evidence it 
contains shows it to be a book of the Gentiles, either of Persia or 
Chaldea. 

The name of Job does not appear to be a Jewish name. There 
is no Jew of that name in any of the books of the Bible, neither is 
there now that I ever heard of. The country where Job is said 
or supposed to have lived, or rather where the scene of the drama 
is laid, is called Uz, and there was no place of that name ever be- 
longing to the Jews. If Uz is the same as Ur, it was in Chaldea, 
the country of the Gentiles. 

The Jews can give no account how they came by this book, 
nor who was the author, nor the time when it was written. Ori- 
gen, in his work against Celsus (in the first ages of the Christian 
church,) says, that the book of Job is older than Moses. Eben-Ez- 
ra, the Jewish commentator, whom (as I have before said) the 
Bishop allows to have been a man ot great erudition, and who cer- 
tainly understood his own language, says, that the book of Job has 
been translated from another language into Hebrew. Spinosa, 
another Jewish commentator of great learning, confirms the opin- 
ion of Eben-Ezra, and says moreover, " Je crois que Job etait 
Gentie ;" # I believe that Job was a Gentile. 

The Bishop (in his answer to me) says, " that the structure of 
the whole book of Job, in whatever light of history or drama it 
be considered, is founded on the belief that prevailed with the 
Persians and Chaldeans, and other Gentile nations, of a good and 
an evil spirit." 

In speaking of the good and evil spirit of the Persians, the 
Bishop writes them JIAmanius and Oromasdes. I will not dis- 
pute about the orthography, because I know that translated 
names are differently spelled in different languages. But he 
has nevertheless made a capital error. He has put the Devil 
first ; for Arimanius, or, as it is more generally written, Jlhriman, 
is the evil spirit, and Oromasdes or Ormusd the good spirit. ' He 
has made the same mistake, in the same paragraph, in speaking 
of the good and evil spirit of the ancient Egyptians Osiris and 
Typho, he puts Typho before Osiris. Th? error is just the same 
as if the Bishop, in writing about the Christian religion, or in 
preaching a sermon, were to say the Devil and God. A priest 
ought to know his own trade better. We agree, however, about 
the structure of the book of Job, that it is Gentile. I have said 

* Spinosa on the Ceremonies of the Jews, page 296, published in Freoch at Am- 
sterdam, 1678. 



OF LLANBAFF, 



201 



in the second part of the Age of Reason, and given my reasons 
for it, that the drama of it is not Hebrew. 

From the testimonies I have cited, that of Origen, who, about 
fourteen hundred years ago, said that the book of Job was more 
ancient than Moses, that of E ben-Ezra, who in his commentary 
on Job, says, it has been translated from another language (and 
consequently from a Gentile language) into Hebrew ; that of 
Spinosa, who not only says the same thing, but that the author 
of it was a Gentile ; and that of the Bishop, who says that the 
structure of the whole book is Gentile. It follows then, in the 
first place, that the book of Job is not a book of the Jews orig- 
inally. 

Then, in order to determine to what people or nation any book - 
of religion belongs, we must compare it with the leading dogmas 
and precepts of that people or nation ; and therefore, upon the 
Bishop's own construction, the book of Job belongs either to, the 
ancient Persians, the Chaldeans, or the Egyptians ; because the 
structure of it is consistent with the dogma they held, that of a 
good and evil spirit, called in Job, God and Satan, existing as 
distinct and separate beings, ar>d it is not consistent with any 
dogma of the Jews. 

The belief of a good and an evil spirit, existing as distinct and 
separate beings, is not a dogma to be found in any of the books 
of the Bible. It is not till we come to the New Testament that 
we hear of any such dogma. There the person called the Son 
of God, holds conversation with Satan on a mountain, as familiar- 
ly as is represented in the drama of Job. Consequently the Bish- 
op cannot say, in this respect, that the New Testament is 
founded upon the Old. According to the Old, the God of the 
Jews was the God of every thing. All good and all evil came 
from him. According to Exodus it was God, and not the Devil, 
that hardened Pharaoh's heart. According to the book of Sam- 
uel it was an evil spirit from God that troubled Saul. And Eze- 
kiel makes God to say, in speaking of the Jews, "I gave them the 
statutes thai were not good, and judgments by which theij should not 
live." The Bible describes the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Ja- 
cob in such a contradictory manner, and under such a two-fold 
character, there would be no knowing when he was in earnest 
and when in irony ; when to believe, and when not. As to the 
precepts, principles, and maxims, in the book of Job, they show 
that the people, abusively called the heathen in the books of the 
Jews, had the most sublime ideas of the Creator, and the most 
exalted devotional morality. It was the Jews who dishonoured 
God. It was the Gentiles who glorified him. As to the fabulous 
personifications introduced by the Greek and Latin poets, it was 
a corruption of the ancient religion of the Gentiles, which con- 
sisted in tbe adoration of a first cause of the works of the creation, 
in which the sun was the great visible agent. 



REPLY TO THE BISHOP 



It appears to have been a religion of gratitude and adoration, 
and not of prayer and discontented solicitation. In J ob we find 
adoration and submission, but not prayer. Even the ten com- 
mandments enjoin not prayer. Prayer has been added to devo- 
tion, by the church of Rome, as the instrument of fees and per- 
quisites. All prayers by the priests of the Christian church, 
whether public or private, must be paid for. It may be right, 
individually, to pray for virtues, or mental instruction, but not 
for things. It is an attempt to dictate to the Almighty in the 
government of the world. But to return to the book of Job. 

As the book of Job decides itself to be a book of the Gentiles, 
the next thing is to find out to what particular nation it belongs, 
and lastly, what is its antiquity. 

As a composition, it is sublime, beautiful, and scientific : full 
of sentiment, and abounding in grand metaphorical description. 
As a drama, it is regular. The dramatis personam, the persons 
performing the several parts, are regularly introduced, and speak 
without interruption or confusion. The scene, as I have before 
said, is laid in the country of the Gentiles, and the unities, though 
not always necessary in a drama, are observed "here as' strictly 
as the subject would admit. 

In the last act, where the Almighty is introduced as speaking 
from the whirlwind, to decide the controversy between Job and 
his friends, it is an idea as grand as poetical imagination can 
conceive. What follows of Job's future prosperity does not be- 
long to it as a drama. It is an epilogue of the writer, as the 
first verses of the first chapter, which gave an account of Job, 
his country and his riches, are the prologue. 

The book carries the appearance of being the work of some 
of the Persian Magi, not only because the structure of it corres- 
ponds to the dogmas of the religion of those people, as founded by 
Zoroaster, but from the astronomical references in it to the constel- 
lations of the Zodiac and other objects in the heavens, of which 
the sun, in their religion called Mithra, was the chief. Job, in 
describing the power of God (Job ix. v. 27,) says, " Who com- 
mandeth the sun, and it riseth not, and sealeth up the stars — 
who alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the 
waves of the sea— who maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, 
and the chambers of the south." All this astronomical allusion 
is consistent with the religion of the Persians. 

Establishing then the book of Job, as the work of some of the 
Persian or Eastern Magi, the case naturally follows, that when 
the Jews returned from captivity, by the permission of Cyrus, 
king of Persia, they brought this book with them : had it trans- 
lated into Hebrew, and put into their scriptural canons, which 
were not formed till after their return. This will account for 
the name of Job being mentioned in Ezekiel (Ezekiel, chap. xiv. 
v. 14,) who was one of the captives, and also for its not being 



OF LLANDAFF. 



263 



mentioned in any book said or supposed to have been written be- 
fore the captivity. 

Among the astronomical allusions in the book, there is one 
which serves to fix its antiquity. It is that where God is made 
to say to Job, in the style of reprimand, " Canst thou bind the 
sweet influences of Pleiades." (Chap, xxxviii. ver. 31.) As the 
explanation of this depends upon astronomical calculation, I will, 
for the sake of those who would not otherwise understand it, en- 
deavour to explain it as clearly as the subject will admit. 

The Pleiades are a cluster of pale, milky stars, about the size 
of a man's hand, in the constellation of Taurus, or in English, 
the Bull. It is one of the constellations of the Zodiac, of which 
there are twelve, answering to the twelve months of the year. 
The Pleiades are visible in the winter nights, but not in the sum- 
mer nights, being then below the horizon. 

The Zodiac is an imaginary belt or circle in-the heavens, eigh- 
teen degrees broad, in which the sun apparently makes his an- 
nual course, and in which all the planets move. When the sun 
appears to our view to be between us and the group of stars form- 
ing such or such a constellation, he is said to be in that constel- 
lation. Consequently the constellation he appears to be in, in the 
summer, are directly opposite to those he appeared in, in the win- 
ter, and the same with respect to spring and autumn. 

The Zodiac, besides being divided into twelve constellations, 
is also, like every other circle, great or small, divided into 360 
equal parts, called degrees ; consequently each constellation con- 
tains 30 degrees. The constellations of the Zodiac are gene-- 
rally called signs, to distinguish them from the constellations 
that are placed out of the Zodiac, and this is the name I shall 
now use. 

The precession of the equinoxes is the part most difficult 
to explain, and it is on this that the explanation chiefly depends. 

The equinoxes correspond to the two seasons of the year, 
when the sun makes equal day and night. 



The following is a disconnected part of the same work, and is now 
(1824) first published. 



SABBATH OR SUNDAY. 

The seventh day, or more properly speaking the period of 
seven days, was originally a numerical division of time, and noth- 
ing more ; and had tk3 bishop been acquainted with the history 
of astronomy he would have known this. The annual revolution 
of the earth makes what we call a year. 



264 



REPLY TO THE BI3HOP 



The ) r ear is artificially divided into months, the montns into 
weeks of seven days, the days into hours, &c. The period of 
seven days, like any other of the artificial divisions of the year, 
is only a fractional part thereof, contrived for the convenience of 
counters. 

It is ignorance, imposition, and priest-craft, that have called it 
otherwise. They might as well talk of the Lord's month, of the 
Lord's week, of the Lord's hour, as of the Lord's day. All time 
is his, and no part of it is more holy or more sacred than another. 
It is however necessary to the trade of a priest that he should 
preach up a distinction of days. 

Before the science of astronomy was studied and carried to 
the degree of eminence to which it was by the Egyptians and 
Chaldeans, the people of those % times had no other helps, than 
what common observation of the very visible changes of4:he sun 
and moon afforded, to enable them to keep an account of the pro- 
gress of time. As far as history establishes the point, the Egyp- 
tians were the first people who divided the year into twelve 
months. Herodotus, who lived above two thousand two hundred 
years ago, and is the most ancient historian whose works have 
reached our time, says, they did this by the knowledge they had of 
the stars. As to the Jews, there is not one single improvement 
in any science or in any scientific art, t*hat they ever produced. 
They were the most ignorant of all the illiterate world. If the 
word of the Lord had come to them, as they pretend, and as the 
bishop professes to believe, and that they were to be the harbin- 
gers of it to the rest of the world ; the Lord would have taught 
them the use of letters, and the art of printing ; for without 
the means of communicating the word it .could not be communi- 
cated ; whereas letters were the invention of the Gentile world ; 
and printing of the modern world. But to return to my sub- 
ject- 
Before the helps which the science of astronomy afforded, the 
people as before said, had no other, whereby to keep an account 
of the progress of time, than what the common and very visible 
changes of the sun and moon afforded. They saw that a great 
number of days made a year, but the account of them was too 
tedious, and too difficult to be kept numerically, from one to 
three hundred and sixty five ; neither did they know the true 
time of a solar year. It therefore became necessary, for the pur- 
pose of marking the progress of days, to put them into small par- 
cels, such as are now called weeks ; and which consisted as 
they now do of seven days. By this means the memory was 
assisted as it is with us at this day ; for we do not say of any 
thing that is past, that it was fifty, sixty, or seventy days ago, but 
that it was so many weeks,or if longer time, so many months. It 
is impossible to keep an account of time without helps of this kind. 
Julian Scaliger, the inventor of the Julian period of 7,98 ) 



OF L LAND AFP 



26£ 



years, produced by multiplying the cycle of the moon, the cycle 
of the sun, and the years of an indiction, 19, 28, 15 into each 
other ; says, that the custom of reckoning by periods of seven 
days was used by the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Hebrews, 
the people of India, the Arabs, and by all the nations of the 
East. 

In addition to what Scaliger says, it is evident that in Britain, 
in Germany, and the north of Europe, they reckoned by periods 
of seven days, long before the book called the bible was known 
in those parts ; and consequently that they did not take that 
mode of reckoning from any thing written in that book. 

That they reckoned by periods of seven days, is evident 
from their having seven names and no more for the several 
days ; and which have not the most distant relation to any thing 
in the book of Genesis, or to that which is called the fouith 
commandment. 

Those names are still retained in England, with no other al- 
teration than what has been produced by moulding the Saxon and 
Danish languages into modern English. 

1. Sun-day from Sunne the sun, and dag, day, Saxon, Sondag 
Danish. The day dedicated to the sun. 

2. Monday, that is, moonday, from Mona, the moon, Saxon, 
Moano, Danish. Day dedicated to the moon. 

3. Tuesday, that is Tuis-co y s-day. The % day dedicated to the 
Idol Tuisco, 

4. Wednes-day, that is Woden's-day. The day dedicated to 
Woden, the mars of the Germans. 

5. Thursday, that is, Thor's-day dedicated to the Idol Thor. 

6. Friday, that is Friga J s-day. The day dedicated to Friga, 
the Venus of the Saxons. 

Saturday from Seaten (Saturn) an Idol of the Saxons ; one of 
the embkms representing time, which continually terminates; 
and renews itself : The last day of the period of seven days. 
When we see a certain mode of reckoning general among na- 
tions totally unconnected, differing from each other in religion 
and in government, and some of them unknown to each other, 
we may be certain that it arises from some natural and common 
cause, prevailing alike over all, and whieh strikes every one in 
the same manner. Thus all nations have reckoned arithmetic- 
ally by tens, because the people of all nations have ten fingers. 
If they had more or less than ten, the mode of arithmetical reck- 
oning would have followed that number, for the fingers are a 
natural numeration table to all the world. I now come to show 
why the period of seven days is so generally adopted. 

Though the sun is the great luminary of the world, and the ani r 
mating cause of all the fruits of the earth, the moon by renewing 
herself more than twelve times oftener than the sun, which it does 
but once a year, served the rustic world as a natural Almanac, 
23 



266 PEPLY TO THE BISHOP 

as the fmgers served it for a numeration table. All the world 
could see the moon, her changes, and her monthly revolutions ; 
and their mode of reckoning time, was accommodated as nearly 
as could possibly be done in round numbers, to agree with the 
changes of that planet, their natural almanac. 

The Moon performs her natural revolution round the earth in 
twenty nine days and a half. She goes from a new moon to a 
half moon, to a full moon, to a half moon gibbous or convex, 
and then to a new moon again. Each of these changes is per- 
formed in seven days and nine hours ; but seven days is the 
nearest division in round numbers that could be taken ; and this 
was sufficient to suggest the universal custom of reckoning by 
periods of seven days, since it is impossible to reckon time with- 
out some stated period. 

How the odd hours could be disposed of without interfering 
with the regular periods of seven days, in case the ancients re- 
commenced a new Septenary period with every new moon, re- 
quired no more difficulty than it did to regulate the Egyptian 
Calendar afterwards of twelve months of thirty days each, or the 
odd hour in the Julian Calendar, or the odd days and hours in 
the French Calendar, In all cases it is done by the addition of 
complementary days ; and it can be done rn no otherwise. 

The bishop knows, that as the Solar year does not end at the 
termination of what we call a day, but runs some hours into the 
next day, as the quarters of the moon runs some hours beyond 
seven days ; that it is impossible to give the year any fixed num- 
ber of days, that will not in course of years become wrongs and 
make a complementary time necessary to keep the nominal year 
parallel with the solar year. The same must have been the case 
with those who regulated time formerly by lunar revolutions. — 
They would have to add three days to every second moon, or in 
that proportion, in order to make the new moon and the new week 
commence together, like the nominal year and the solar year. 

Diodorus of Sicily, who, as before said, lived before Christ was 
born, in giving an account of times much anterior to his own, 
speaks of years, of three months, of four months, and of six months. 
These could be of no other than years composed of lunar revolu- 
tions, and therefore to bring the several periods of seven days, to 
agree with such years, there must have been complementary days, 

The moon was the first Almanac the world knew ; and the on- 
ly one which the face of the heavens afforded to common specta- 
tors. Her changes and her revolutions have entered into all the 
Calendars that have been known in the known world. 

The division of the year into twelve months, which, as before 
ahown, was first done by the Egyptians, though arranged with 
astronomical knowledge, had reference to the twelve moons, or 
more properly speaking, to the twelve lunar revolutions that ap- 
pear in the space of a solar year \ as the period of seven days had 



OF LLANDAFF. 



reference to one revolution of the moon. The feasts of the Jews 
were, and those of the Christian Church still are regulated by the 
moon. The Jews observed the feasts of the new moon and full 
moon, and therefore the period of seven days was necessary to 
them. 

All the feasts of the Christian Church are regulated by the 
moon. That called Easter governs all the rest, ?nd the moon 
governs Easter. It is always the first Sunday after the first full 
moon that happens after the vernal Equinox, or 21st of March. 

In proportion as the science of astronomy was studied and im- 
proved by the Egyptians and Chaldeans, and the solar year reg- 
ulated by astronomical observations, the custom of reckoning by 
lunar revolutions became of less use, and in time discontinued. 
But such is the harmony of all parts of the machinery of the uni- 
verse, that a calculation made from the motion of one part will 
correspond with some other. 

The period of seven days deduced from the revolution of the 
moon round the earth, corresponded nearer than any other period 
of days would do to the revolution of the earth round the sun, 
Fifty-two periods of seven days make 364, which is within one 
day and some odd hours of a solar year ; and there is no other 
periodical number that will do the same, till we come to the num- 
ber thirteen, which is too great for common use, and the num- 
bers before seven are too small. The custo^n, therefore, of reck- 
oning by periods of seven days, as best suited to the revolution of 
the moon, applied with equal convenience to the solar year, and 
became united with it. But the decimal division of time, as reg- 
ulated by the French calendar, is superior to every other method. 

There is no part of the bible, that is supposed to have been writ- 
ton by persons who lived before the time of Josiah, (which was a 
thousand years after the time of Moses,) that mentions any thing 
about the Sabbath, as a day consecrated by that which is called 
the fourth commandment, or fhat the Jews kept any such day. 
Had any such day been kept, during the thousand years of which 
I am speaking, it certainly would have been mentioned frequently ; 
and that it should never be mentioned, is strong, presumptive, and 
circumstancial evidence that no such day was kept. But mention 
is often made of the feasts of the new-mcon, and of the full-moon; 
for the Jews, as before shown, worshipped the moon ; and the 
word sabbath was applied by the Jews to the feasts of that planet, 
and to those of their other deities. It is said in Hosea, chap. 2, 
ver 11, in speaking of the Jewish nation, "And I will cause all 
her mirth to cease, her feast-days, her new-moons and her sab- 
baths, and all her solemn feasts." Nobody will be so foolish as to 
contend that the sabbaths here spoken of are Mosaic sabbaths. 
The construction of the verse implies they are lunar sabbaths, or 
sabbaths of the moon. It ought also to be observed that Hosea 
lived in the time of Ahaz and Hezefeiah, about seventy years be^ 



268 REPLY TO THE BISHOP 

fore the time of Josiah, when the law called the law of Moses is 
said to have been found ; and consequently, the sabbaths that 
Hosea speaks of are sabbaths of the Idolatry. 

When those priestly reformers, (impostors I should call them) 
Hilkiah, Ezra, and Nehemiah, began to produce books under the 
name of the books of Moses, they found the word sabbath in use ; 
and as to the period of seven days, it is, like numbering arithmet- 
ically by tens, from time immemorial. But having found them in 
use, they continued to make them serve to the support of their 
new imposition. They trumped up a story of the creation being 
made in six days, and of the Creator resting on the seventh, to suit 
with the lunar and chronological period of seven days ; and they 
manufactured a commandment to agree with both. Impostors al- 
ways work in this manner. They put fables for originals, and 
causes for effects. 

There is scarcely any part of science, or any thing in nature, 
which those impostors and blasphemers of science, called priests, 
as well Christians as Jews, have not, at some time or other, per- 
verted, or sought to pervert to the purpose of superstition and 
falsehood. Every thing wonderful in appearance, has been as- 
cribed to angels, to devils, or to saints. Every thing ancient has 
some legendary tale annexed to it. The common operations of 
nature have not escaped their practice of corrupting every thing.- 



FUTURE STATE. 

The idea of a future state was an universal idea to all nations 
except the Jews. At the time and long before Jesus Christ and 
the men called his disciples were born, it had been sublime- 
ly treated of by Cicero in his book on old age, by Plato, Socra- 
tes, Xenophpn, and other of the ancient theologists, whom the 
abusive Christian church calls Heathen. Xenophon represents 
the elder Cyrus speaking after this manner : — 

" Think not my dearest children, that when I depart from you, 
I shall be no more ; but remember that my soul, even while I 
lived among you, was invisible to you ; yet by my actions you 
were sensible it existed in this body. Believe it therefore exist- 
ing still, though it be still unseen. How quickly would the hon- 
ors of illustrious men perish after death, if their souls performed 
nothing to preserve their fame ? For my own part, I could 
never think that the soul, while in a mortal body, lives ; but when 
departed from it, dies ; or that its consciousness is lost, when it 
is discharged out of an unconscious habitation. But when it is 
freed from all corporeal alliance, it is then that it truly exists. " 

Since then the idea of a future existence was universal, it may 
be asked, what new doctrine does the New Testament contain ? 



OF LLANDAFF. 269 

I answer, that of corrupting the theory of the ancient theologists, 
by annexing to it the heavy and gloomy doctrine of the resurrec- 
tion of the body. 

As to the 4 resurrection of the body, whether the same body or 
another, it is a miserable conceit, fit only to be preached to 
man as an animal. It is not worthy to be called doctrine. — Such 
an idea never entered the brain of any visionary but those of the 
Christian church : — yet it is in this that the novelty of the New 
Testament consists. All the other matters serve but as props 
to this, and those props are most wretchedly put together. 



MIRACLES. 

The Christian church is full of miracles. In one of the churches 
of Brabant, they show a number of cannon balls, which they say, 
the virgin Mary, in some former war, caught in her muslin apron 
as they came roaring out of the cannon's mouth, and prevented 
their hurting the Saints of her favourite army. She does no 
such feats now-a-days. Perhaps the reason is, that the infidels 
have taken away her muslin apron. They show also, between 
Montmatre and the village of St. Dennis, several places where 
they say St. Dennis stopt with his head in his hands after it had 
been cut off at Montmatre. The Protestants will call those things 
lies ; and where is the proof that all the other things called mir- 
acles are not as great Res as those, 

[There appears to be an omission here in the copy."] 

Christ, say those Cabalists, came in the fulness of time. And 
pray what is the fulness of time ? The words admit of no idea. 
They are perfectly Cabalistical. Time is a word invented to de- 
scribe to our conception a greater or less portion of eternity. It 
may be a minute, a portion of eternity measured by the vibration 
of a pendulum of a certain length it may be a day, a year, a 
hundred, or a thousand years, or any other quantity. Those 
portions are only greater or less comparatively. 

The word fulness applies not to any of them. The idea of ful- 
ness of time cannot be conceived. A woman with child and 
ready for delivery, as Mary was when Christ was born, may be 
said to have gone her full time ; but it is the woman that is full, 
not time. * . 

It may also be said figuratively, in certain cases, that the times 
are full of events ; but time itself is incapable of being full of it- 
self. Ye hypocrites ! learn to speak intelligible language. 

It happened to be a time of peace when they say Christ was 
born ; and what then ? There had been many such intervals ; 
and have been many such since. Time was no fuller in any of 



270 REPLY TO TIIE BISHOP 

them than in the other. If he were he would be fuller now than 
he ever was before. If he was full then he must be bursting now. 
But peace or war have relation to circumstances, and not to 
time ; and those Cabalists would be at as much loss to make out 
any meaning to fulness of circumstances, as to fulness of time ; 
and if they could, it would be fatal ; for fulness of circumstances 
would mean, when there is no more time to follow. 

Christ, therefore, like every other person, was neither in the 
fulness of one nor the other. 

But though we cannot conceive the idea of fulness of time, 
because we cannot have conception of a time when there shall 
be no time ; nor of fulness of circumstance, because we cannot 
conceive a state of existence to be without circumstances ; we 
can often see, after a thing is past, if any circumstance, neces- 
sary to give the utmost activity and success to that thing, was 
wanting at the time that thing took place. If such a circfpn- 
stance was wanting, we may be certain that the thing which took 
place, was not a thing of God's ordaining ; whose work is always 
perfect means. They tell us that Christ was the Son of God ; 
in that case, he would have known every thing ; and he came 
upon earth to make known the will of God to man throughout 
the whole earth. If this had been true, Christ would have 
known and would have been furnished with all the possible means 
of doing it ; and would have instructed mankind, or at least his 
apostles, in the use of such of the means as they could use them- 
selves to facilitate the accomplishment of the mission ; conse- 
quently he would have instructed them in the art of printing 
for the press is, t;he tongue of the world ; and without whrch his 
or their preaching was less than a whistle compared to thunder. 
Since then he did not do this, he had not the means necessary 
to the mission ; and consequently had not the mission. 

They tell us in the book of Acts, chap. ii. a very stupid story 
of the Apostles' having the gift of tongues ; and cloven tongues of 
fire descended and sat upon each of them. Perhaps it was this 
story of cjoyen tongues that gave rise to the notion of slitting 
Jack-daws' tongues to make them talk. Be that hdwever as it 
may, the gifts of tongues, even if it were true, would be but of lit- 
tle use without the art of printing. I can sit in my chamber as I 
do while writing this, and by the aid of printing, can send the 
thoughts I am writing through the greatest part of Europe, to the 
East Indies, and over all North America, in a few months. They 
had not the means, and the want of means detects the pretended 
mission. 

There are three modes of communication. Speaking, writing 
and printing. The first is exceedingly limited. A man's voice 
can be heard but a few yards of distance ; and his person can be 
but in one place. 



OF LLANDAFF. 271 

Writing is much more extensive ; but the thing written cannot 
be multiplied but at great expense, and the multiplication will be 
slow and incorrect. Were there no other means of circulating 
what priests call the word of God (the Old and New Testament) 
than by writing copies, those copies could not be purchased at less 
than forty pounds sterling each; consequently but few people 
could purchase them, while the writers could scarcely obtain a 
livelihood by it. But the art of printing changes all the cases, and 
opens a scene as vast as the world. , It gives to man a sort of di- 
vine attribute. It gives to him mental omnipresence. He can 
be every where and at the same instant ; for wherever he is read 
he is mentally there. 

The case applies not only against the pretended mission of 
Christ and his Apostles, but against every thing that priests call 
the word of God, and against all those who pretend to deliver it ; 
for had God ever delivered any verbal word, he would have taught 
the means of communicating it. The one without the other is 
inconsistent with the wisdom we conceive of the Creator. 

The third chapter of Genesis, verse 21, tells us that God made 
coats of skins and clothed Adam and Eve. It was infinitely more 
important that man should be taught the art of printing, than that 
Adam should be taught to make a pair of leather breeches, or his 
wife a petticoat. 

There is another matter, equally striking and important, that 
connects itself with those observations against this pretended word 
of God, this manufactured book, called Revealed Religion. 

We know that whatever is of God's doing is unalterable by man 
beyond the laws which the Creator has ordained. We cannot 
make a tree grow with the root in the air and the fruit in the 
ground ; we cannot make Iron into Gold, nor Gold into Iron ; we { 
cannot make rays of light shine forth rays of darkness, nor dark- 
ness shine forth light. If there were such a thing, as a word of 
God, it would possess the same properties which all his other 
works do. It would resist destructive, alteration. But we see 
that the book which they call the word of God, has not this prop- 
erty. That book says, Gen. chap. i. v. 27, u So God created 
man in his own image but the printer can make it say, So man 
created God in his own image. The words are passive to every 
transposition of them, or can be annihilated and others put in their 
places. This is not the case with any thing that is of God's do- 
ing ; and therefore this book called the word of God, tried by the 
same universal rule which every other of God's works within our 
reach can be tried by, proves itself to be a forgery. 

The bishop says, that " miracles are proper proofs of a divine mis- 
sion." Admitted. But we know that men* and especially priests, 
can tell lies, and call them miracles. It is therefore necessary, 
that the thing called a miracle be proved to be true, and also to 



ftSVLY TO TEtE BISHOP. 



be miraculous ; before it can be admitted as proof of the thing 
called revelation. 

The bishop must be a bad logician not to know that one 
doubtfiA thing cannot be admitted as proof that another doubtful 
thing is true. It Would be like attempting to prove a liar not to 
be a liar, by the evidence of another >vho is as great a liar as 
himself. 

Though Jesus Christ, by beirtg ignorant of the art of printing, 
shows he had not the means necessary to a divine mission, and 
consequently had no such mission ; it does not follow that if 
he had known that art, the divinity of what they call his mission 
would be proved thereby, any more than it proved the divinity 
of the man who invented printing. Something, therefore, be- 
yond printing, even if he had known it, was necessary as a mira- 
cle, to have proved that what he delivered was the word of God ; 
and this was that the book in which that word should be contained, 
which is now called the Old and New Testament, should pos- 
sess the in^aculous property, distinct from all human books, of 
resisting alteration. This would be not only a miracle, but an 
ever existing and universal miracle ; whereas those which they 
tell us of, even if they had been true, were momentary and lo- 
«al ; they would leave no trace behind, after the lapse of a few 
ye-ars, of having ever existed : But this would prove, in all ages 
and in all places, the book to be divine and not human, as effectu- 
ally, and as conveniently, as aquafortis proves gold to be gold by 
not being capable of acting upon it ; and detects all other metals 
and all counterfeit composition, by dissolving them. Since then 
the only miracle capable of every proof is wanting, and which ev- 
ery thing that is of divine origin possesses ; all the tales of mira- 
cles with which the Old and New Testament are filled, are fit on- 
ly for impostors to preach and fools to believe* 



ORIGIN OF FREE-MASOWRY. 



PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. 

This tract is a chapter belonging to the third part of the Age 
of Reason, as will be seen by the references made in it to pre- 
ceding articles, as forming a part of the same work. It was 
culled from the writings of Mr. Paine, after his death, and pub- 
lished in a mutilated state, by Mrs. Bonneville, his executrix. 
Passages having a reference to the Christian religion she eras- 
ed, with a view, no doubt, of accommodating the work to the pre- 
judices of bigotry. These however have been restored from the 
original manuscript, excepting a few lines which were rendered 
illegible. 

The masonic society had committed nothing to print until the 
year 1722, when Doct. Anderson's book of constitutions, &c. 
was ordered by the Grand Lodge to be printed. Since that time 
the masons have published many works respecting the fraternity, 
all of which, through design or want of information, tend to ob- 
scure and embarrass the subject ; and as the society had adopted 
the custom of the Anglo Saxon priests, called Druids, to keep 
their proceedings an entire secret, mankind i% general, including 
the greater portion of the brethren themselves, have remained 
in utter ignorance in regard to its establishment and original in- 
tention. Various speculations therefore continue to be made re- 
specting the origin of the society, and its views at the time of its 
formation ; and Mr. Paine, among the rest, with all his sagacity, 
has suffered himself to be most egregiously deceived by- such * 
writings of the masons as hflld fallen into his hands. These writ- 
ers, in giving an account of the society, take up the history of 
architecture as far back as any record of it has survived the 
wreck of time. Wherever they can trace in history, whether 
true or fabulous, any account of noble and grand structures, they 
presumptuously pronounce them to have been raised by their so- 
ciety. The pyramids of JKgypt, the tower of Babel whose exis- 
tence is doubted, and Solomon's temple, about which there has 
probably been much lying, are all claimed by them. For what 
is this ridiculous parade, but to make the uninitiated, as well 
as their own members, few of whom know any thing about k, 
wonder at the astonishing antiquity of the institution? Would 
not the advice of Pope apply in this case ? 

" Go ! and pretend your family is young, 

Nor own your fathers have been fools so long." 



■214 



PREFACE. 



If the antiquity of a sect or society proved its utility, or that 
it was founded in correct principles, the religion taught by the 
ancient Egyptian priests, or judaism, ought to be preferred to 
Christianity. 

There is no possible use to be derived from deception upon 
this subject. The masonic society is undoubtedly very ancient ; 
having commenced, m the city of York, in England, in the early 
part of the tenth century of the Christian era ; and from thence 
it sprea.d into other parts of Europe. It was formed by men 
who had some knowledge of rude architecture, such as it was at 
that day, and working masons ; and had no other view than irrr- 
provement in the art or craft of masonry ; which their writers 
dignify with the title of royal craft, because some of their Kings 
have condescended to become members of the society, for the pur- 
pose, no doubt, of flattering their subjects to persevere in im- 
provements in the art of building ; which was useful to them, as 
they always stand in need of palaces, castles, and churches. 
The society is composed of free men, none others are admitted, 
hence the term, free masons. At first there were but three de- 
grees, apprentice, fellow-craft, that is, one who had served an 
apprenticeship, and was entitled to wages as a journeyman ; and 
master-mason. The latter degree entitled its possessor to con- 
tract for building on his own account. It was not until the be- 
ginning of the eighteenth century, that any one, according to 
the regulations of the society, could be admitted a member, 
who did not labour at the trade of masonry, or knew something 
of architecture ; although, perhaps, through favour, some were 
smuggled in who had very little or no knowledge of that art.* 

As to the mysteries of the craft, so much talked of, they are * 
of the same nature as those of carpentry, or any other trade ; 
and consist in a knowledge of the art of masonry ; which was 
thought much more of at the time the society was instituted, than 
at the present day. The trifling rites and ceremonies, which the 
masons borrowed from the ancient Druids, are mere allegories, 

* The Author of this Preface, although he has thrown considerable light upon the 
subject, has been himself deceived by masonic writers in respect to the origin of the 
existing society of Freemasons ; which is entirely speculative, and was instituted at 
the time when, lie says, persons not being masons by trade were first admitted as 
members, viz. in the early part of the eighteenth century. Late writers have shown, 
that the first Lodge ever established upon the existing speculative plan, was formed in 
London, in 1717 ; and that a similar society was formed in Scotland, in 1736. These 
two lodges soon began to quarrel about precedency ; each endeavouring to prove its 
priority by existing records of the humble mechanical societies of labouring masons, 
which "had been established in both kingdoms many centuries before. The Yorkites, 
in England, it is believed, produced the oldest documents: both societies, however, 
continued to grant dispensations for formkig lodges in foreign countries. 

From these two sources all the Freemason societies, upon the present establishment, 
owe their origin. Nothing of the kind ever existed in Europe* or any other quarter 
of die world, previously to 1717. Although ostensibly founded upon a society of real 
working masons, nothing is now taught in it, nor ever has been, of that art, or any 
Other art or science. — Ed. 



PREFACE. 



275 



and symbolical signs and words, serving as a medium of secresy, 
by means of which the members of the society are enabled to 
recognize each other. 

There is no more propriety in* prefixing the term free to. ma- 
sonry, than there is to carpentry, smithery, or to any other trade. 
It is inapplicable to any art or trade ; although it may be applied 
to the professors' of it. At the time the free masons' society was 
first instituted in England, there were in that kingdom both free 
men and slaves in all the mechanical trades then in use. Dr. 
Henry, in his history of Great Britain, giving an account of the 
different ranks of people, &c. from 449 to 1066, after stating that 
slavery had been in some degree meliorated, observes, " But af- 
ter all these mitigations of the severities of slavery, the yoke of 
servitude was still very heavy, and the greater part of the labour- 
ers, mechanics, and common people, groaned under that yoke at 
the conclusion of this period." Which was 149 years after the 
establishment of the masonic society. 

All the writers upon this subject, who are members of the so- 
ciety, endeavour to conceal the origin and object of it. For 
what reason it is difficult to imagine, except it be to keep the 
world in amazement respecting it. Or, perhaps, their pride in- 
duces them to contemn the humble, though laudable and useful 
purposes for which the institution was formed. Enough however 
has appeared in the old records which they have published to es- 
tablish the view I have taken of it, and which, when I com- 
menced this preface, I intended to have inserted ; but finding 
they would extend to too great a length, I am under the neces- 
sity of omitting them. I will however make a few extracts from 
the old charges of the Free and Accepted Masons, collected 
from their old records, at the command of the Grand Master, by 
James Anderson, D. D. Approved by the Grand Lodge, and 
ordered to be printed in the first edition of the book of consti- 
tutions, on March 25, 1722. 

" Concerning God avd religion. A mason is obliged, by his 
tenure, to obey the moral law ; and if he rightly understands the 
art, he will never be a stupid atheist, nor an irreligious libertine. 
But though in ancient times masons were charged in every 
country to be of the religion of that country or nation, whatever 
it was, yet it is nowthought more expedient only to oblige them 
to that religion in which all men agree, leaving their particular 
opinions to themselves ; that is, to be good men and true, or 
men of honour and honesty, by whatever denominations or per- 
suasions they may be distinguished ; whereby masonry becomes 
the centre of union, and the means of conciliating true friend- 
ship among persons, that must have remained at a perpetual 
distance. # 

♦William Preston, past master of the lodge of antiquity, in his Illustrations of 
masonry, makes the following remarks on the same subject. " The spirit of the ful* 



276 



PREFACE. 



Of Lodges. A lodge is a place where m.asons assemble and 
work ; hence that assembly, or duly organized society of ma- 
sons, is called a lodge ; and every brother ought to belong to 
one, and to be subject to its By-Laws and the general regu- 
lations. 

The persons admitted members of a lodge, must be good and 
true men, free-born, and of mature and discreet age, no bond- 
men, no women, no immoral or scandalous men, but of good 
report. 

Of apprentices. Candidates may know, that no master should 
take an apprentice, unless he has sufficient employment for him, 
and unless he be a perfect youth, having no maim or defect in 
his body, that may render him incapable of learning the art, of 
serving his master's lord, and of being made a brother, and then 
a fellow-craft in due time, even after he has served such a term 
of years, as the custom of the country directs ; and that he 
should be descended of honest parents. 

Of the management of the craft in working. All Masons shall 
work honestly on working days, that they may live creditably on 
holy days ; and the time appointed by the law of the land, or 
confirmed by custom, shall be observed. 

The most expert of the fellow-craftmen shall be chosen or ap- 
pointed the master or overseer of the Lord's work \ who is to 
be called master by those that work under him. The crafts- 
men are to avoid all ill language, and to call each other by no 
disobliging name, but brother or fellow ; and to behave them- 
selves courteously within and without the lodge. 

The master, knowing himself to be able of cunning, shall un- 
dertake the Lord's work as reasonably as possible, and truly dis- 
pend his goods as if they were his own ; nor give more wages 
to any brother or apprentice, than he really may deserve. 

Both the master and the masons receiving their wages justly, 
shall be faithfuL to the Lord, and honestly finish their work, 
whether task or journey : nor put the work to task that hath 
been accustomed to journey. 

None shall discover envy at the prosperity of a brother, nor 
supplant him, or put him out of his work, if he be capable to fin- 
ish the same ; for no man can finish another's work so much to 
the Lord's profit, unless he be thoroughly acquainted with the 
designs and draughts of him that began it. 

When a fellow-craftsman is chosen warden of the work under 
the master, he shall be true both to master and fellows, shall 

minating priest will be tamed 5 and a moral brother, though of a different persuasion, 
engage his esteem : for mutual toleration in religious opinions is one of the most dis- 
tinguishing and valuable characteristics of the craft. As all religions teach morality, 
if a brother be found to act the part of a truly honest man, his private speculative 
opinions are left to God and himself. Thus, through the influence of masonry, which 
is reconcilable to the best policy, all those disputes which embitter life, and sour the 
tempers of men, are avoided*" 



PREFACE. 277 

carefully oversee the work in the master's absence, to the Lord's 
profit ; and his brethren shall obey him. 

All masons employed, shall meekly receive their wages with- 
out murmuring or mutiny, and not desert the master till the work 
is finished. 

A younger brother shall be instructed in working, to prevent 
spoiling the materials for want of judgment, and for increasing 
and continuing of brotherly love. 

All the tools used in working shall be approved by the Grand 
Lodge. 

No labourer shall be employed in the proper work of mason- 
ry ; nor shall Free Masons work with those that are not Free, 
without an urgent necessity ; nor shall they teach labourers 
and unaccepted masons, as they should teach a brother or 
fellow. • 

Of behaviour in the Lodge while constituted. If any complaint 
be brought, the brother found guilty shall stand to the award and 
determination of the lodge, who are the proper and competent 
judges of all such controversies, (unless you carry it by appeal 
to the Grand Lodge) and to whom they ought to be referred, 
unless a Lord's work be hindered the mean while, in which case 
a particular reference may be made ; but you must never go to 
law about what concerneth masonry, without an absolute neces- 
sity apparent to the lodge. 

Behaviour in presence of strangers not masons. You shall be 
cautious in your words and carriage, that the most penetrating 
stranger shall not be able to discover or find out what is not pro- 
per to be intimated ; and sometimes you shall divert a discourse, 
and manage it prudently for the honour of the worshipful frater- 
nity. 

Behaviour at home, and in your neighbourhood. . You are to act 
as becomes a moral and wise man ; particularly, not to let your 
family, friends, and neighbours know the concerns of the Lodge, 
Stc. but wisely to consult your own honour, and that of the an- 
cient brotherhood. You must also consult your health, by not 
continuing together too late, or too long from home, after lodge 
hours are past ; and by avoiding of gluttony and drunkenness 
that your families be not neglected or injured, nor you disabled 
from working. 

Behaviour towards a strange brother. You are cautiously to 
examine him, in such a method as prudence shall direct you, that 
you may not be imposed upon by an ignorant false pretender, 
whom you are to reject with contempt and derision, and beware 
of giving him any hints of knowledge. 

But if you discover him to.be a true and genuine brother, you 
are to respect him accordingly ; and if he is in want, you must 
relieve him if you can, or else direct him how he may be reliev- 
ed ; you must employ him some days, or else recommend him 
24 



278 



PREFACE. 



to be employed. But you are not charged to do beyond your 
ability, only to prefer a poor brother that is a good man and true, 
before any other poor people in the same circumstances." 

All the old charges have a reference to Free Masons in the 
capacity of labourers, and as u good men and /rwe," and, no 
dsubt, had a beneficial effect. But the substance has been lost 
sight of, and the skeleton, or shadow, only retained. The mum- 
mery of the Druidical priests, with infinite additions of the same 
cast, is cherished as the desideratum of knowledge, calculated 
to complete the sum of human happiness and perfection. The 
corruptions of the Society seem to have kept pace with those 
of the Christian religion. It is at this day as different to what it 
was, as the Christianity now professed is to the religion taught by 
Jesus Christ. In his time there were no Doctors of Divinity — 
Right Reverend Fathers in God, nor their Holinesses the Popes. 
Neither were thare in the Society of Free Masons, at its com- 
mencement, any Grand Secretaries — Grand Treasurers — Knights 
of Malta — Captain Generals — Generalissimos — Most Excellent 
Scribes — Most Excellent High Priests — Most Excellent Kings, 
&c. &c. # To which might now, perhaps, very appropriately be 
added, Grand bottle holder and cork drawer. 

The admission into the society of kings, princes, noblemen, 
bishops, and doctors in divinity, as patrons of the institution, has 
probably been the cause of so great change. These men, it 
may be presumed, brought much of their consequence with 
them into the Lodge, and were, no doubt, addressed in a manner 
suitable to their supposed dignity in other stations. At any rate, 
by whatever means these high sounding titles may have been 
introduced, they appear ridiculous when applied to members of 
an institution founded for such, purpose as that of the Masonic 
Society, and ought to be abandoned. 

It is difficult, at this time, for members of the Society, or any 
body else, to say what benefit is to be derived from the magical 
arts pretended to be practised in the Lodges. The mystic rites 
and ceremonies of the Egyptian priests, handed down to the 
Druids by Pythagoras ; the miraculous stories related "of the 
ancient J ews ; and the legendary tales of Roman Catholic su- 
perstition, fruitful sources of imposition, have been ransacked to 
find subjects for new degrees to be tacked to the Society of 
Free Masons. I have in my possession a list of forty-three de- 
grees in what is called Free-Masonry ; one of which is the or- 
der of the Holy Ghost. 

If, as here represented, all this mystical nonsense has been 
obtruded into the Society, it may be asked, why do men of sense 
attach themselves to it ? I answer, many retire from it after tak- 
ing two or three degrees ; some have political or other sinister 

* This is true, if reference be made to what it was, when under the management 
of the real masons, the operatives previously to the year 1717. 



I 279 



views which retain thern ; and, furthermore, most men are fond 
of distinction in some way. Any man, of common understand- 
ing, by being punctual at the meetings, and paying strict atten- 
tion to the ceremonies, may become a Warden, that is, overseer, 
or some other Grand officer, even that of Most Worshipful Grand 
Master ; and in the mean time, keep mounting up the ladder, 
from mystery to mystery, till he arrives at the forty-third degree 
of perfection : which, however, in my opinion, cannot be' of the 
least possible advantage to him here or hereafter, any further 
than the consequence it may give him. As to those who serve 
in the ranks, tljey probably consider themselves sufficiently 
honoured by being hailed as Brothers by those whom they 
think their superiors, and permitted to parade the streets with 
ribbands and white aprons, to the amazement of the profane 
vulgar. 

Notwithstanding the remarks I have made, I am by no means 
inimical to the Masonic Society : for I believe it to be a liberal, 
social institution, in which persons of the most opposite opinions 
on religious and political subjects associate in the utmost har- 
mony. By these friendly meetings, it is to be presumed, that 
party spirit, both in politics and religion, loses much of its asper- 
ity among the members ; and that those, who otherwise might 
havl entertained hostile feelings towards each other, become 
friends. In this point of view, the Society deserves to be held 
in the highest estimation. For however laudable zeal may be 
in a j.ust cause, when carried to excess, so as to exeite personal 
ill-will towards others of contrary opinions, it degenerates into 
its kindred vice, leading to hatred and persecution. No good 
reason can be given why men of the same or similar societies 
should entertain greater partiality for one another, than for oth- 
ers of their fellow-men, any further than their merits when known 
may deserve ; and to this it is generally limited among men of 
sense ; still, in consequence of the obligations by which Masons 
are bound to each other, and a sort of bigotry in many, this par- 
tiality has had its good effects in mitigating the evils of war ; 
and, for men who travel, a diploma from a Lodge has passed as 
a letter of recommendation in foreign countries. 

As a charitable institution, the Masonic Society ought to be 
held in high consideration. The relief it grants to its members 
and their families in distress, is very considerable. But, unfor- 
tunately, as I am told, its means are very much exhausted by- 
expenses incurred for refreshments at the regular meetings. If 
each member were required to pay for what he consumes at 
those meetings, the Society, in consequence of its numbers, by 
its income arising from annual contributions, fees of initiation, 
&c. would be enabled to do more in charity, perhaps, than any 
private society in existence. 



280 ■ 



PREFACE. 



As to what Mr. Paine has saia upon this abstruse subject, I 
take the liberty of observing, that, in my opinion, notwithstanding 
the talents he has bestowed upon it, and the interest he has given 
to it, his remarks, made doubtless in the utmost sincerity, are 
calculated to perplex and embarrass readers not conversant in 
these matters, as much as those of any other author, whose de- 
sign was to involve it in unintelligible mystery. 

" In thoughts more elevate, he reasoned high, 
But found no end, in wand'ring mazes !ost ■ 



ORIGOT Or FREE-MASONRY. 



It is always understood that Free-Masons have a secret whicn 
they carefully conceal ; but from everything that can be collect- 
ed from their own accounts of Masonary, their real secret is no 
other than their origin, which but few of them understand ; and 
those who do, envelope it in mystery. 

The Society of Masons are distinguished into three classes or 
degrees. 1st. The Entered Apprentice. 2d. The Fellow- 
Craft. 3d. The Master Mason. 

The entered apprentice knows but little more of Masonry, 
than the use of signs and tokens, and certain steps and words, 
by which Masons can recognize each other, without being dis- 
covered by a person who is not a Mason. The fellow-craft is 
not much better instructed in Masonry, than the entered appren- 
tice. It is only in the Master Mason's lodge, that whatever 
knowledge remains of the origin of Masonary is preserved and 
concealed. 

In 1730, Samuel Pritchard, member of a constituted lodge in 
England, published a treatise, entitled Masonry Dissected ; and 
made oath before the Lord Mayor of London, that it was a true 
copy. 

" Samuel Pritchard maketh oath that the copy hereunto an- 
nexed is a true and genuine copy in every particular." 

In his work he has given the catechism, or examination, in 
question and answer, of the apprentices, the fellow-craft, and 
the Master Mason. Thefie was no difficulty in doing this, as it 
is mere form. 

In his introduction he says, " the original institution of Mason- 
ry consisted in the foundation of the liberal arts and sciences, 
but more especially in Geometry, for at the building of the Tower 
of Babel, the art and mystery of Masonry was first introduced, 
and from thence handed down by Euclid, a worthy and excel- 
lent mathematician of the Egyptians ; and he communicated it 
to Hiram, the Master Mason concerned in building Solomon's 
Temple in Jerusalem." 
I Besides the absurdity of deriving Masonry from the building 
of Babel, where according to the story, the confusion of lan- 
| guages prevented the builders understanding each other, and 
| consequently of communicating any knowledge they had there, 
\ is a glaring contradiction in point of chronology in the account he 
| gives. 



282 ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY. 

Solomon's Temple was built and dedicated 1004 years before 
the Christian era ; and Euclid, as may be seen in the tables of 
chronology, lived 277 years before the same era. It was there- 
fore impossible that Euclid could communicate any thing to Hiram, 
since Euclid did not live till 700 years after the time of Hiram. 

In 1783, Captain Goerge Smith, inspector of the Royal Artil- 
lery Academy at Woolwich, in England, and Provincial Grand 
Master of Masonry for the county of Kent, published a treatise 
entitled, The Use and Abuse of Free-Masonry. 

In his chapter of the antiquity of Masonry, he makes it to be 
coeval with creation. " When," says he, "the sovereign archi- 
tect raised on Masonic principles the beauteous globe, and com- 
manded that master science Geometry, to lay the planetary world, 
and to regulate by its laws the whole stupendous system in just 
unerring proportion, rolling round the central sun." 

" But," continues he, " I am not at liberty publicly to undraw 
the curtain, and thereby to descant on this head ; it is sacred, 
and will ever remain so ; those who are honoured with the trust 
will not reveal it, and those who are ignorant of it cannot betray 
it." By this last part of the phrase, Smith means the two infe- 
rior classes, the fellow-craft and the entered apprentice, for he 
says, in the next page of his work, "It is not every one that is 
barely initiated into Free-Masonry that is entrusted with all the 
mysteries thereto belonging ; they are not attainable as things of 
course, nor by every capacity." 

The learned, but unfortunate Doctor Dodd, Grand Chaplain 
of Masonry, in his oration at the dedication of Free-Mason's 
Hall, London, traces Masonry through a variety of stages. Ma- 
sons, says he, are well informed from their own private and inte- 
rior records, that the building of Solomon's Temple is an impor- 
tant era, from whence they derive many mysteries of their art. 
"Now (says he), be it remembered that this great event took 
place above 1000 years before the Christian era, and consequent- 
ly more than a century before Homer, the first of the Grecian 
Poets wrote ; and above five centuries before Pythagoras brought 
from the east his sublime system of truly masonic instruction to 
illuminate our western world. 

" But remote as this period is, we date not from thence the 
Commencement of our art. For though it might owe to the wise 
and glorious King of Is-rael, some of its many mystic forms and 
hieroglyphic ceremonies, yet certainly the art itself is coeval with 
man, the great subject of it. 

" We trace," continues he, " its footsteps in the most distant, . 
the most remote ages and nations of the world. We find it 
amongst the first and most celebrated civilizers of the East. 
We deduce it regularly from the first astronomers on the plains 
of Chaldea, to the wise and mystic kings and priests of Egypt 2 
the sages of Greece, and the philosophers of Rome." 



ORIGIN OT F R 71 E -M A S ON RY. 283 

From these reports and declarations of Masons of the high- 
est order in the institution, we see that Masonry, without pub- 
licly declaring so, lays claim to some divine communication from 
the Creator, in a manner different from, and Unconnected with, 
the book which the Christians call the Bible ; and the natural 
result from this is, that Masonry is derived from some very an- 
cient religion, wholly independent of T and unconnected with that 
book. 

To come then at once to the point, Masonry (as I shall show 
from the customs, ceremonies, hieroglyphics, and chronology of 
Masonry) is derived, and is the remains of the religion of the an- 
cient Druids ; who, like the magi of Persia and the priests of 
Heliopolis in Egypt, were priests of the Sun. They paid worship 
to this great luminary, as the great visible agent of a great invis- 
ible first cause, whom they styled, Time witnout limits. 

The Christian religion and Masonry have one and the same 
common origin, both are derived from- the worship of the sun ; 
Jie difference between their origin is, that the Christian religion 
as a parody on the worship of the sun, in which they put a man 
whom they call Christ, in the place of the sun, and pay him the 
same adoration which was originally paid to the sun, as I have 
shown in the chapter on the origin of the Christian religion.* 

In Masonry many of the ceremonies of the Drliids are pre- 
served in their original state, at least without any parody. With 
them the sun is still the sun ; and his image in the form of the 
sun, is the great emblematical ornament of Masonic Lodges and 
Masonic dresses. It is the central figure on their aprons, and 
they wear it also pendant on the breast in their lodges and in 
their processions. It has the figure of a man, as at the head of 
the sun, as Christ is always represented. 

At what period of antiquity, or in what nation, this religion 
was first established, is lost in the labyrinth of unrecorded times. 
It is generally ascribed to the ancient Egyptians, the Babyloni- 
ans and Chaldeans, and reduced afterwards to a system regulated 
by the apparent progress of the stin through the twelve signs of 
Zodiac by Zoroaster* the lawgiver of Persia, from whence 
Pythagoras brought it into Greece. It is to these matters Dr. 
Dodd refers in the passage already quoted from his oration. 

The worship of the sun, as the great visible agent of a great 
invisible first cause, time without limits, spread itself over a con- 
siderable part of Asia and Africa, from thence to Greece and 
Rome, through all ancient Gaul, and into Britain and Ireland. 

Smith, in his chapter on the antiquity of Masonry in Britain, 
says, that " notwithstanding the obscurity which envelopes ma- 
sonic history in that country, various circumstances contribute to 



* Referring to an unpublished portion of this work of which this chapter forms a 
part. 



234 ORIGIN OP FREE-MASONRY. 

♦ 

prove that Free-Masonry was introduced into Britain about 1030 
years beforo Christ." 

It cannot be Masonry in its present state that Smith here 
alludes to. The Druids flourished in Britain at the period he 
speaks of, and it is from them that Masonry is descended. Smith 
has put the child in the place of the parent. 

It sometimes happens, as well in writing as in conversation, 
that a person lets slip an expression that serves to unravel what 
he intends to conceal, and this is the case with Smith, for in the 
same chapter he says, " The Druids, when they committed any 
thing to writing, used the Greek alphabet, and I am bold to as- 
sert that the most perfect remains of the Druid's rites and cere- 
monies are preserved in the customs and ceremonies of the Ma- 
sons that are to be found existing among mankind. " My breth- 
ren" says he, " maybe able to trace them with greater exactness 
than I am at liberty to explain to the public." 

This is a confession from a Master Mason, without intending 
it to be so understood by the public, that Masonry is the remains 
of the religion of the Druids ; the reasons for the Masons keep- 
ing this a secret I shall explain in the course of this work. 

As the study and contemplation of the Creator in the works 
of the creation, of which, the sun as the great visible agent of 
that Being, was the visible object of the adoration of Druids, all 
thefr religious rights and ceremonies had reference to the appa- 
v rent progress of the sun through the twelve signs of the Zodiac, 
and his influence upon the earth. The Masons adopt the same 
practices. The roof of their temples or lodges is ornamented 
with a sun, and the floor is a representation of the variegated 
face of the earth, either by carpeting or by Mosaic work. 

Free-Masons' Hall, in Great Queen-street, Lincoln's Inn 
Fields, London, is a magnificent building, and cost upwards of 
12,000 pounds sterling. Smith, in speaking of this building, 
says, (page 152.) "The roof of this magnificent hall is, in all 
probability, the highest piece of finished architecture in Europe. 
In the centre of this roof, a most resplendent sun is represented 
in burnished gold, surrounded with the twelve signs of the Zodi- 
ac, with their respective characters : 



°f Aries 

y Taurus 

n Gemini 

2S Cancer 

SI L eo 

ttjj Virgo 



=s= Libra 
vi Scorpio 
/ Sagittarius 
VJ Capricornus 
ZZ Aquarius 
X Pisces 



After giving this description, he says, " The emblematical 
meaning of the sun is well known to the enlightened and inquis- 
itive Free-Mason : and as the real sun is situated in the centre 



ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY 



of the universe, so the emblematical sun is the centre of real 
Masonry. We all know, continues he, that the sun is the foun- 
tain of light, the source of the seasons, the cause of the vicissi- 
tudes of day and night, the parent of vegetation, the friend of 
man ; hence the scientific Free-Mason only -knows the reason 
why the sun is placed in the centre of this beautiful hall." 

The Masons, in order to protect themselves from the persecu- 
tion of the Christian church, have always spoken in a mystical 
manner of the figure of the sun in their lodges, or, like the as- 
tronomer Lalande, who is a mason, been silent upon the subject. 
It is their secret, especially in Catholic countries, because the 
figure of the sun is the expressive criterion that denotes they are 
descended from the Druids, and that wise, elegant philosoph- 
ical, religion, was the faith opposite to the faith of the gloomy 
Christian church. 

The lodges of the Masons, if built for the purpose, are con- 
structed in a manner to correspond with the apparent motion of 
the sun. They are situated East and West. The master's 
place is always in the East. In the examination of an entered 
apprentice, the master, among many other questions, asks him, 

Q. How is the lodge situated ? 

A. East and West. 

Q. Why so ? 

A. Because all churches and chapels are, or ought to be so. 

This answer, which is mere catechismal form, is not an answer 
to the question. It does no more than remove the question a 
point ftirther, which is, why ought all churches and chapels go be 
so ? But as the entered apprentice is not initiated into the Iku^ 
idical mysteries of Masonry, he is not asked any questions to 
which a direct answer would lead thereto. 

Q. Where stands your master ? 

A. In the East. 

Q. Why so ? 

A. As the sun rises in the East, and opens the day, so the mas- 
ter stands in ttie East, (with his right hand upon his left breast, 
being a sign, and the square about his neck,) to open the lodge, 
and set his men at work. 

Q. Where stands your wardens ? 

A. In the West. 

Q.. What is their business ? 

A. As the sun sets in the West to close the day, so the war- 
dens stand in the West, (with their right hands upon their left 
I breasts, being a sign, and the level and plumb rule about their 
necks,) to close the lodge, and dismiss the men from labour, 
paying them their wages. 
! Here the name of the sun is mentioned, but it is proper to 
i observe, that in this place it has reference only to labour or to 
the time of labour, and not to any religious Druidical rite or cere- 



286 



ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY. 



mony, as it would have with respect to the situation of Lodges 
East and West. I have already observed in the chapter on the 
origin of the Christian religion, that the situation of churches 
East and West is taken from the worship of the sun, which rises 
in the East, and has not the least reference to the person called 
Jesus Christ. The Christians never bury their dead on the 
North side of a church ; # and a Mason's Lodge always has, or 
is supposed to have, three windows, which are called fixed lights, 
to distinguish them from the moveable lights of the sun and the 
moon. The master asks the entered apprentice, 

Q. How are they (the fixed lights) situated ? 

A. East, West, and South. 

Q. What are their uses ? 

A. To light the men to and from their work. 

Q. Why are there no lights in the North ? 

A. Because the sun darts no rays from thence. 

This, among numerous other instances, shows that the Chris- 
tian religion, and Masonry, have one and the same common ori- 
gin, the ancient worship of the sun. 

The high festival of the Masons is on the day they call St. 
John's day ; but every enlightened Mason must know that hold- 
ing their festival on this day has no reference to the person call- 
ed St. John ; and that it is only to disguise the true cause of 
holding it on this day, that they call the day by that name. As 
there were Masons, or at least Druids, many centuries before 
the time of St. John, if such person ever existed, the holding 
their festival on this day must refer to some cause totally uncon- 
nected with John. 

The case is, that the day called St. John's day is the 24th of 
June, and is w r hat is called Midsummer-day. The sun is then 

* This may have been the case formerly, but I believe, at present, very little atten- 
tion is paid to the position of burying grounds in respect to churches. In regard to 
" the situation of churches East and West," I find the rule wa3 observed as late as 
the time of building St. Paul's Cathedral, which was finished in 1697. William 
Presten, in giving a description of this edifice, in his Iilustrations^of Masonry, says, 
" A strict regard to the situation of this Cathedral, due East and West, has given it 
an oblique appearance with respect to Ludgate-street in front ; so that the great front 
gate in the surrounding iron rails, being made to regard the stteet in front, rather 
than the Church to which it belongs, the statue of queen Ann, that is exactly in the 
middle of the west front, is thrown on one side the straight approach from the gate to 
the Church, and gives an idea of the whole edifice being awry." In 1707, Sir Chris- 
topher Wren, the Architect of St. Paul's Cathedral, in a letter addressed to a joint 
commissioner with himself for building fifty churches in addition to others already 
built, to supply the place of those destroyed by the conflagration of 1666, observes, 
•'I could wish that all the burials in Churches should be disallowed, which is not only 
unwholesome, but the pavements can never be kept even, nor pews upright ; and if the 
Church-yard is close about the church, this also is inconvenient. It will be inquired, 
where then shall be the burials 1 I answer in cemeteries seated in the out-skirts of 
the town. As to the situation of the Churches, I should propose they be brought as 
forward as possible into the larger and more open streets. Nor are we, I think, too 
nieely to observe East and West in the position, unless it falls out properly." See An- 
derson's Book of Constitutions of the Free-Masons. — Editor. 



ORIGIN OP FREE-MASONRY. 



287 



arrived at the summer solstice ; and with respect to his meridi- 
onal altitude, or height at high noon, appears for some days to 
be of the same height. The astronomical longest day, like the 
shortest day, is not every year, on account of leap year, on the 
same numerical day, and therefore the 24th of June is always 
taken for Midsummer-day ; and it is in honour of the sun, which 
has then arrived at his greatest height, in our hemisphere, and 
not any thing with respect to St. John, that this annual festival 
of the Masons, taken from the Druids, is celebrated on Midsum- 
mer-day. * 

Customs will often outlive the remembrance of their origin, 
and this is the case with respect to a custom still practised in 
Ireland, where the Druids flourished at the time they flourished 
in Britain. On the eve of St. John's day, that is, on the eve of 
Midsummer-day, the Irish light fires on the tops of the hills. 
This can have no reference to St. John ; but it has emblemat- 
ical reference to the sun, which on that day is at his highest 
summer elevation, and might in common language be said to 
have arrived at the top of the hill. 

As to what Masons and books of Masonry, tell us of Solo- 
mon's Temple at Jerusalem, it is no wise improbable that some 
masonic ceremonies may have been derived from the building 
of that temple, for the worship of the sun was in practice many 
centuries before the temple existed, or before the Israelites came 
x>ut of Egypt. And we learn from the history of the Jewish 
Kings, 2 Kings, chap. xxii. xxiii. that the worship of the sun 
was performed by the Jews in that temple. It is, however, 
much to be doubted, if it was done with the same scientific 
purity and religious morality, with which it was performed by the 
Druids, who by all accounts that historically remain of them, 
were a wise, learned, and moral class of men. The Jews, on 
the contrary, were ignorant of astronomy, and of science in gen- 
eral, and if a religion founded upon astronomy, fell into their 
hands, it is almost certain it would be corrupted. We do not 
read in the history of the Jews, whether in the Bible or else- 
where, that they were the inventors or the improvers of any one 
tirt or science. Even in the building of this temple, the Jews 
did not know how to square and frame the timber for beginning 
and carrying on the work, and Solomon was obliged to send to 
Hiram, king of Tyre, (Zidon) to procure workmen ; " for thou 
knowest, (says Solomon to Hiram, 1 Kings, chap. v. ver. 6,) 
that there is not among us any that can skill to hew timber like 
unto the Zidonians." This temple was more properly Hiram's 
temple than Solomon's, and if the Masons derive any thing from 
the building of it, they owe it to the Zidonians and not to the 
Jews. — But to return to the worship of the sun in this temple. 

It is said, 2 Kings, chap, xxrii. ver. 8 " And King Josiah put 



283 



ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY. 



down all the idolatrous priests that burned incense unto the sun, 
the moon, the planets, and all the host of heaven." — And it is 
•.said at the 1 1th ver. " and he took away the horses that the kings 
of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house 
of the Lord, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire, ver. 13, 
and the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on 
the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon, the 
King of Israel had builded for Astoreth, the abomination of the 
Zidonians (the very people that built the temple) did the king 
defile. 

Besides these things, the description that Josephus gives of the 
decorations of this temple, resembles on a large scale those of a 
Mason's Lodge. He says that the distribution of the several 
parts of the temple of the Jews represented all nature, particu- 
larly the parts most apparent of it, as the sun, the moon, the 
planets, the zodiac, the earth, the elements ; and that the sys- 
tem of the world was retraced there by numerous ingenious em- 
blems. These, in all probability, are, what Josiah, in his ig- 
norance, calls the abominations of the Zidonians.* Every 
thing, however, drawn from this temple,J and applied to Mason- 
ry, stilj refers to the worship of the sun, however corrupted or 
misunderstood by the Jews, and, consequently, to the religion 
of the Druids. 

Another circumstance which shows that Masonary is derived 
from some ancient system, prior to, and unconnected with, the 
Christian religion, is the chronology, or method of counting time, 
used by the Masons in the records of their lodges. They make 
no use of what is called the Christian era ; and they reckon their 
months numerically, as the ancient Egyptians did, and as the 
Quakers do now. I have by me, a record of a French Lodge, 
at the time the late Duke of Orleans, then Duke de Chartres, was 
Grand Master of Masonary in France. It begins as follows ; 
" Le trentieme jour due sixieme mois de Pan dela V. L. cinq, mil sept 
cent soixante trois that is, the thirteenth day of the sixth month 
of the year of the venerable Lodge, five thousand seven hundred 
and seventy three. By what I observe in English books of 
Masonary, the English Masons use the initials A. L, and not V, 

* Smith, in speaking of a Lodge, says, when the Lodge is revealed to an entering 
Mason, it discovers to him a representation of the world ; in which, from the won- 
ders of nature, we are led to contemplate her great Original, and worship him from 
his mighty works ; and we are thereby also moved to exercise those moral and social 
virtues which become mankind as the servants of the great Architect %{ the world. 

■f It may not be improper here to observe, that the law called the law of Moses could 
not have been in existence at the time of building this temple. Here is the likeness 
of things in heaven above, and in the earth beneath. Aed we read in 1 Kings, chap. 
6, 7, that Solomon made cherubs and cherubims, that he carved all the walls of the 
house round about with cherubims and palm-trees, and open flowers, and that he 
made a molten sea, placed on twelve oxen, and the ledges of it were ornamented with 
lions, oxen, and cherubims ; all this is contrary to the Jaw, called the law of Moses, 



origin of free-Masonry. 289 

L. By A. L. they mean in the year of the Lodge,* as tne 
Christians by A. D. mean in the year of our Lord. But A. L. 
like V. L. refers to the same chronological era, that is, to the 
supposed time of the creation. In the chapter on the origin of 
the Chiristian religion, I have shown that the cosmogany, that is, 
the account of the creation, with which the book of Genesis opens^ 
has taken and been mutilated from the Zend- Avista of Zo- 
roaster, and is fixed as a preface to the Bible, after the Jews 
returned from captivity in Babylon, and that the rabbins of the 
Jews do not hold their account in Genesis to be a fact, but mere 
allegory. The six thousand years in the Zend- Avista, is chang- 
ed or interpolated into six days in the account of Genesis. The 
Masons appear to have chosen the same period, and perhaps to 
avoid the suspicion and persecution of the church, have adopted 
the era of the world, as the era of Masonry. The V. L. of the 
French, and A. L. of the English Mason, answer to the A. M. 
Anno-Mundi, or year of the world. 

Though the Masons have taken many of their ceremonies and 
hieroglyphics from the ancient Egyptians, it is certain they have 
not taken their chronology from thence. If they had, the church 
would soon have sent them to the stake ; as the chronology of 
the Egyptians, like that of the Chinese, goes many thousand 
years beyond the Bible chronology. 

The religion of the Druids, as before said, was the same as 
the religion of the ancient Egyptians. The priests of Egypt 
were the professors and teachers of science, and were styled 
priests of Heliopolis, that is, of the city of the sun. The Druids 
in Europe, who were the same order of men, have their name 
from the Teutonic or ancient German language ; the Germans 
being anciently called Teutones. The word Druid signifies a 
wise man. In Persia they were called magi, which signifies the 
jsame thing. 

, " Egypt," says Smith, u from whence we derive many of our 
mysteries, has always borne a distinguished rank in history, and 
was once celebrated above all others for its antiquities, learning, 
opulence, and fertility. In their system, their principal hero- 
gods, Osiris and Isis, theologically represented the Supreme Be- 
ing and universal nature ; and physically, the two great celestial 
luminaries, the sun and the moon, by whose influence all nature 
was actuated. The experienced brethren of the Society (says 
Smith in a note to this passage) are well informed what affinity 
these symbols bear to Masonry, and why they are used in all 
Masonic Lodges." 

* V L. used by French Masons, are the initials of Vraie Lumiere, true light ; and 
A. L. used by the English, are the initials of Anno Lucis, in the year of light. But 
as in both cases, as Mr. Paine observes, reference is had to the supposed time of the 
creaion, jis mistake is of no consequence. — Editor 

25 



290 



ORIGIN Of FREE-MASONRY. 



In speaking of the apparel of the Masons in their Lodges, part 
of which, as we see in their public processions, is a white leather 
apron, he says, " the Druids were apparelled in white at the time 
of their sacrifices and solemn offices. The Egyptian priests of 
Osiris wore snow-white cotton. The Grecian and most other 
priests wore white garments. As Masons we regard the princi- 
ples of those icho were the first worshipers of the time God, imitate 
their apparel, and assume the badge of innocence. 

" The Egyptians," continues Smith, "in the earliest ages, con- 
stituted a great number of Lodges, but with assiduous care kept 
their secrets of Masonry from all strangers. These secrets have 
been imperfectly handed down to us by tradition only, and ought 
to be kept undiscovered to the labourers, craftsmen, and appren- 
tices, till by good behaviour and long study, they become better 
acquainted in geometry and the liberal arts, and thereby qualifi- 
ed for Masters and Wardens, which is seldom or ever the case 
with English Masons." 

Under the head of Free-Masonry, written by the astronomer 
Lalande, in the French Encyclopedia, I expected from his great 
knowledge in astronomy, to have found much information on the 
origin of Masonry ; for what connection can there be between 
any institution and the sun and twelve signs of the zodiac, if there 
be not something in that institution or in its origin, that has refer- 
ence to astronomy. Every thing used as an hieroglyphic, has re- 
ference to the subject and purpose for which it is used ; and we 
are not to suppose the Free-Masons, among whom are many very 
learned and scientific men, to be such idiots as to make use of 
astronomical signs without some astronomical purpose. 

But I was much disappointed in my expectation from Lalande 
In speaking of the origin of Masonry, he says, "ISorigine de la 
maconnerie se perd, comme tant d'autres dans Pobscm 'Je des temps;" 
that is, the origin of Masonry, like many others, loses itself in the m 
obscurity of time. When I came to this expression, I supposed 
Lalande a Mason, and on inquiry found he was. This passing 
over saved him from the embarrassment which Masons are under 
respecting the disclosure of their origin, and which they are sworn 
to conceal. There is a society of Masons in Dublin who take 
the name of Druids ; these Masons must be supposed to have a 
reason for taking that name. 

I come now to speak of the cause of secresy used by the Ma- 
sons. The natural source of secresy is fear. When any new re- 
ligion over-runs a former religion, the professors of the new be- 
come the persecutors of the old. We see this in all the instances 
that history brings before us. When Hilkiah the priest and Sha- 
phan the scribe, in the reign of king Josiah, found, or pretended 
to find the law, called the law of Moses, a thousand years after 
the time of Moses, and it does not appear from the 2d book of 
Kings, chapters 22, 23, that such law was ever practiced or 



ORIGIN OF PR! E-MASONRY. 



291 



known before the time of Josiah, he established that law as a na- 
tional religion, and put all the priests of the sun to death. When 
the Christian religion over-ran the Jewish religion, the Jews were 
the continual subjects of persecution in all Christian countries. 
When the Protestant religion in England over-ran the Roman 
Catholic religion, it was made death for a Catholic priest to be 
found in England. As this has been the case in all the instances 
we have any knowledge of, we are obliged to admit it "ith respect 
to the case in question, and that when the Christian religion over- 
ran the religion of the Druids in Italy, ancient Gaul, Britain, and 
Ireland, the Druids became the subjects of persecution. This 
would naturally and necessarily oblige such of them as remained 
attached to their original religion to meet in secret, and under 
the strongest injunctions of secresy. Their safety depended up- 
on it. A false brother might expose the lives of many of them 
to destruction ; and from the remains of the religion of the Druids, 
thus preserved, arose the institution, which, to avoid the name of 
Druid, took that of Mason, and practised, under ihis new name, 
the rights and ceremonies of Druids. 



LETTER 

TO 

SAMUEL ADAMS. 



My dear and venerable Friend, 

I received with great pleasure your friendly arid affectionate 
letter of Nov. 30th, and I thank you also for the frankness of it. 
Between men in pursuit of truth, and whose object is the happi- 
ness of man both here and hereafter, there ought to be no re- 
serve. Even error has a claim to indulgence, if not to respect^ 
when it is believed to be truth. I am obliged to you for your af- 
fectionate remembrance of what you style my services in awak- 
ening the public mind to a declaration of independence, and sup- 
porting it after it was declared. I also, like you, have often 
looked back on those times, and Hive thought, that if indepen- 
dence had not been declared at the time it was, the public mind 
could not have been brought up to it afterwards. It wijl imme- 
diately occur to you, who were so intimately acquainted with the 
situation of things at that time, that I allude to the black times 
of seventy-six ; for though I know, and you my friend also know, 
they were no other than the natural consequences of the military 
blunders of that campaign, the country might have viewed them 
as proceeding from a natural inability to support its cause against 
;he enemy, and have sunk under the despondency of that mis- 
conceived idea. This was the impression against which it was 
lecessary the country should be strongly animated. 

I now come to the second part of your letter, on which I shall 
>e as frank with you as you are with me. " But (say you) when 
{ heard you had turned your mind to a defence of infidelity , I felt 
nyself much astonished," &c. What, my good friend, do you 
iall believing in God infidelity? for that is the great point men- 
ioned in the Age of Reason against all divided beliefs and alle- 
gorical divinities. The Bishop of Llandaff (Dr. Watson) not 
>nly acknowledges this, but pays me some compliments upon it, 
n his answer to the second part of that work. " There is (says 
le) a philosophical sublimity in some of your ideas, when speak- 
ig of the Creator of the Universe." 

What then, (my much esteemed friend, for I do not respect 
r ou the less because we differ, and that perhaps not much, in re- 
ligious sentiments) what, I ask, is the thing called infidelity? If 
we go back to your ancestors and mine, three or four hundred 
25* 



£34 



LETTER TO 



years ago, for we must have fathers, and grandfathers or we 
should not have been here, we shall find them praying to saints 
and virgins, and believing in purgatory and transubstantiation ; 
and therefore, all of us are infidels according to our forefather's 
belief. If we go back to times more ancient we shall again be 
infidels according to the belief of some other forefathers. 

The case, my friend, is, that the world has been overrun with 
fable and creed of human invention, with sectaries of whole na- 
tions, against other nations, and sectaries of those sectaries in 
each of them against each other. Every sectary, except the 
Quakers, have been persecutors. Those who fled from persecu- 
tion, ^persecuted in their turn ; and it is this confusion of creeds 
that has filled the world with persecution, and deluged it with 
blood. Even the depredation on your commerce by the Barbary 
powers, sprang from the crusades of the church against those 
powers. It was a war of creed against creed, each boasting of 
God for its author, and reviling each other with the name of infi- 
del. If I do not believe as you believe, it proves that you do not 
believe as I believe, and this is all that it proves. 

There is, however, one point of union wherein all religions 
meet, and that is in the first article of every man's creed, and of 
every nation's creed, that has 8hy creed at all, I believe in God. 
Those who rest here, and there are millions who do, cannot be 
wrong as far as their creed goes. Those who choose to go fur- 
ther may be wrong y for it is impossible that all can be right, since 
there is so much contradiction among them. The first, there- 
fore, are, in my opinion, on the safest side. 

I presume you are so far acquainted with ecclesiastical history 
as to know, and the bishop who has answered me has been oblig- 
ed to acknowledge the fact, that the Books that compose the New 
Testament, were voted by yeas and nays to be the Word of God, 
as you now vote a law, by the Popish Councils of Nice and La- 
odocia, about fourteen hundred and fifty years ago. With re- 
spect to the fact there is no dispute, neither do I mention it for 
the sake of controversy. This vote may appear authority enough 
to some, and not authority enough to others. It is proper, how- 
ever, that every body should know the fact. 

With respect to the Age of Reason which you so much con- 
demn, and that, I believe, without having read it, for you say 
only that you heard of it, I will inform you of a circumstance, 
because you cannot know it by other means. 

I have said in the first page of the first part of that work, that 
it had long been my intention to publish my thoughts upon reli- 
gion, but that I had reserved it to a later time of life. I have 
now to inform you why I wrote it and published it at the time I 
did. 

In the first place, I saw my life in continual danger. My 
friends were falling as fast as the guillotine could cut their heads 



SAMUEL ADAMS. 



295 



off, and as I expected every day the same fate, 1 resolved to be- 

fin my work. I appeared to myself to be on my death bed, for 
eath was on every side of me, and I had no time to lose. This 
accounts for my writing at the time I did, and so nicely did the 
time and intention meet, that I had not finished the first part of 
the work more than six hours, before I was arrested and taken 
to prison. Joel Barlow was with me, and knows the fact. 

In the second place, the people of France were running head- 
long into atheism, and I had the work^ranslated and published in 
their own language, to stop them in that career, and fix them to 
the first article (as I have before said) of every man's creed, who 
has any creed at all, / believe in God. I endangered my own 
life, in the first place, by opposing in the Convention the exe- 
cuting of the King, and labouring to show they were trying the 
monarch and not the man, and that the crimes imputed to him 
were the crimes of the monarchical system ; and endangered it 
a second time by opposing atheism, and yet some of your priests, 
for I do believe that all are perverse, cry out, in the war-whoop 
of monarchical priestcraft, what an infidel ! what a wicked man 
is Thomas Paine ! They might as well add, for he believes in 
God, and is against shedding, blood. • 
But all this war-whoop of the pulpit has some concealed dftject. 
Religion is not the cause, but is "the stalking horse. They put it 
forward to conceal themselves behind it. It is not a secret that 
there has been a party composed of the leaders of the Federal- 
ists, for I do not include all Federalists with their leaders, who 
have been working by various means for several years past, to 
overturn the Federal Constitution established on the representa- 
tive system, and place government in the new world on the cor- 
rupt system of the old. To accomplish this a large standing ar- 
my was necessary, and as a pretence for such an army, the dan- 
ger of a foreign invasion must be bellowed forth, from the pulpit, 
from the press, and by their public orators. 

I am not of a disposition inclined to suspicion. It is in its na- 
ture a mean and cowardly passion, and upon the whole, even admit- 
ting error into the case, it is better ; I am sure it is more gener- 
ous to be wrong on the side of confidence, than on the side of 
suspicion. But I know as a fact, that the English Government 
distributes annually fifteen hundred pounds sterling among the 
Presbyterian ministers in England, and one hundred among those 
of Ireland ;* and when I hear of the strange discourses of some 
of your ministers and professors of colleges, I cannot, as the 
Quakers say, find freedom in my mind to acquit them. Their 
anti-revolutionary doctrines invite suspicion, even against -one's 
will, and in spite of one's charity to believe well of them. 

* There must undoubtedly l>e a very gross mistake in respect to the amount said to 
be expended ; the sums intended to be expressed were probably fifteen hundred thou- 
sand, and one hundred thousand pounds. — Editor. 



296 



LETTER TO 



As you have given me one Scripture pnrrase, I will give you 
another for those ministers. It is said in Exodus, chapter xxiii. 
verse 28, " Thou shalt not revile the Gods, nor curse the ruler 
of thy people." But those ministers, such I mean as Dr. Em- 
mons, curse ruler and people both, for the majority are, politi- 
cally, the people, and it is those who have chosen the ruler whom 
they curse. As to the first part of the verse, that of not reviling 
the Gods, it makes no part of my Scripture : I have but one God. 

Since I began this letter, for I write it by piece-meals as I have 
leisure, I have seen the four letters that passed between you and 
John Adams. In your first letter you say, u Let divines and 
philosophers, statesmen and patriots, unite their endeavours to 
renovate the age by inculcating in the minds of youth the fear and 
love of the Deity, and universal philanthropy ." Why, my dear 
friend, this is exactly^ my religion, and is the whole of it. That 
you may have an idea that the Age of Reason (for I believe you 
have not read it) inculcates this reverential fear and love of the 
Deity, I will give you a paragraph from it : 

" Do we want to contemplate his power ? We see k in the 
immensity of the Creation. Do we want to contemplate his 
wisdom? We see it in the unchangeable order by which the in- 
comprehensible whole is governed. Do we want to contemplate 
his munificence ? We see it in the abundance with which he fills 
the earth. Do we want to contemplate his mercy ? We see it 
in his not withholding that abundance even from the unthankful." 

As I am fully with you in your first part, that respecting the 
Deity, so am I in your second, that of universal philanthropy ; by 
which I do not mean merely the sentimental benevolence of wish- 
ing well, but the practical benevolence of doing good. We can- 
not serve the Deity in the manner we serve those who cannot do 
without that service. He needs no services from us. We can 
add nothing to eternity. But it is in our power to render a ser- 
vice acceptable to him, and that is not by praying, but by endeav- 
ouring to make his creatures happy. A man does not serve God 
when he prays, for it is himself he is trying to serve ; and as to 
hiring or paying men to pray, as if the Deity needed instruction, 
it is in my opinion an abomination. One good school-master is 
of more use and of more value than a load of such parsons as 
Dr. Emmons, and some others. 

You, my dear and much respected friend, are now far in the 
vale of years ; I have yet, I believe, some years in store, for I 
have a good state of health and a happy mind ; I take care of 
both, by nourishing the first with temperance, and the latter with 
abundance. 

This, I believe you will allow to be the true philosophy of life. 
You will see by my third letter to the citizens of the United 
States, that I have been exposed to, and preserved through many 
dangers ; but instead of buffeting the Deity with prayers, as if I 



SAMUEL ADAMS. 



297 



distrusted him, or must dictate to him, I reposed myself on his 
protection : and you, my friend, will find, even in your last mo- 
ments, more consolation in the silence of resignation than in the 
murmuring wish of prayer. 

In every thing which you say in your second lettor to John 
Adams, respecting our rights as men and citizens in this world, 
I am perfectly with you. On other points we have to answer to 
our Creator and not to each other. The key of heaven is not in 
the keeping of any sect, nor ought the road to it to be obstructed 
by any. Our relation to each other in this world is as men, and 
the man who is a friend to man and to his rights, let his religious 
opinions be what they may, is a good citizen, to whom I can give, 
as I ought to do, and as every other ought, the right hand of fel- 
lowship, and to none with more hearty good will* my dear friend 
than to you 

THOMAS PAINE, 

Federal City, Jan, 803, 



EXTRACT FROM A LETTER 



TO 

ANDREW A. DEAN. 



Respected Friend, 

I received your friendly letter, for which I am obliged to you. 
It is three weeks ago to-day (Sunday, Aug. 15,) that I was struck 
with a fit of an apoplexy, that deprived me of all sense and mo- 
tion. I had neither pulse nor breathing, and the people about 
me supposed me dead. I had felt exceedingly well that day, and 
had jt»st taken* a slice of bread and butter, for supper, and was 
going to bed. The fit took me on the stairs, as suddenly as if I 
had been shot through the head ; and I got so very much hurt 
by the fall, that I have not been able to get in and out of bed 
since that day, otherwise than being lifted out in a blanket, by 
two persons ; yet all this while my mental faculties have remain- 
ed as perfect as I ever enjoyed them. I consider the scene I 
have passed through as an experiment on dying, and I find that 
death has no terrors for me. As to the people called Christians, 
they have no evidence that their religion is true.f There is no 
more proof that the Bible is the word of God, than that the Ko- 
ran of Mahomet is the word of God. It is education makes all 
the difference. Man, before he begins to think for himself, is as 
much the child of habit in Creeds as he is in ploughing and sow- 
ing. Yet creeds, like opinions, prove nothing. 

Where is the evidence that the person called Jesus Christ is 
the begotten Son of God ? The case admits not of evidence ei- 
ther to our senses, or our mental faculties ; neither has God given 
to man any talent by which such a thing is comprehensible. It 
cannot therefore be an object for faith to act upon, for faith is 
nothing more than an assent the mind gives to something it sees 
cause to believe is fact. But priests, preachers, and fanatics, 
put imagination in the place of faith, and it is the nature of the 
imagination to believe without evidence. 

*.Mr. Dean rented Mr. Paine 's farm at New Rochelle. 

•f- Mr. Paine's entering upon the subject of religion on this occasion, it may be pre- 
sumed^ was occasioned by the following passage in Mr. Dean's letter to him, viz. 

'* I have read with good attention your manuscript on dreams, and examination* on 
the prophecies in the bible. I am now searching the old prophecies, and comparing 
the same to those said to be quoted in the New Testament. I confess the comparison 
is a matter worthy of our serious attention ; I know not the result t411 I finish ; then, 
if you be living, I shall communicate the same to you : I hope to be with you as soon 
as possible." > 



LETTER TO MR. DEAN. 



299 



If Joseph the carpenter dreamed, (as the book of Matthew, 
chap. 1st, says he did,) that his betrothed wife, Mary, was with 
child, by the Holy Ghost, and that an angel told him so ; I am 
not obliged to put faith in his dream, nor do I put any, for I put 
no faith in my own dreams, and I should be weak and foolish in- 
deed to put faith in the dreams of others. 

The Christian religion is derogatory to the Creator in all its 
articles. It puts the Creator in an inferior point of view, and 
places the Christian Devil above him. It is . he, according to 
the absurd story in Genesis, that outwits the Creator, in the gar- 
den of Eden, and steals from him his favourite creature, man, 
and at last, obliges him to beget a son, and put that son to death, 
to get man back again, and this the priests of the Christian re- 
ligion, call redemption. 

Christian authors exclaim against the practice of offering up 
human sacrifices, which they say, is done in some countries ; 
and those authors make those exclamations without ever reflect- 
ing that their own doctrine of salvation is founded on a human 
sacrifice. They are saved, they say, by the blood of Christ. 
The Christian religion begins with a dream, and ends with a 
murder. 

As I am now well enough to set up some hours in the day, 
though not well enough to get up without help, I employ myself 
as I have always done, in endeavouring to bring man to the right 
use of the reason that God has given him, and to direct his mind 
immediately to his Creator, and not to fanciful secondary beings • 
called mediators, as if God was superannuated or ferocious. 

As to the book called the Bible, it is blasphemy to call it the 
word of God. It is a book of lies and contradiction, and a his- 
tory of bad times and bad men. There is but a few good charac- 
ters in the whole book. The fable of Christ and his twelve apostles, 
which is a parody on the sun and the twelve* signs of the Zodiac, 
copied from the ancient religions of the eastern world, is tho 
least hurtful part. Every thing told of Christ has reference to 
the sun. His reported resurrection is at sun-rise, and that on, 
the first day of the week ; that is, on the day anciently dedicated 
to the sun, and from thence called Sunday ; in Latin Dies Solis, 
the day of the sun ; as the next day Monday, is Moon-day. But 
there is not room in a letter to explain these things. 

While man keeps to the belief of one God, his reason unites 
with his creed. He is not shocked with contradictions and hor- 
rid stories. His Bible is the heavens and the earth. He beholds 
his Creator in all his works, and every thing he beholds inspires 
him with reverence and gratitude. From the goodness of God 
to all, he learns his duty to his fellow-man, and stands self-re- 
proved when he transgresses it, Such a man is no persecutor. 

But when he multiplies his creed with imaginary things, of 
which he can have neither evidence nor conception, such as the 



*300 



LETTER TO MR. DEAN. 



tale of the Garden ofEden, the talking serpent, the fall of man, the 
dreams of Joseph the carpenter, the pretended resurrection and 
ascension, of which -here is even no historical relation, for no his- 
torian of those times metions such a thing, he gets into the path- 
less region of confusion, and turns either fanatic or hypocrite. 
He forces his mind, and pretends to believe what he does not be- 
lieve. This is in general the case with the methodists. Their 
religion is all creed and no morals. 

I have now my friend given you a fac simile of my mind on 
the subject of religion and creeds, and my wish is, that you make 
this letter as publicly known as you find opportunities of doing. 

Yours in friendship, 

THOMAS PAINE 

j\r r. Aug. isos. - 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



EXTRACTED FROM THE " PROSPECT, OR VIEW OF THE MORAL 
WORLD," A PERIODICAL WORK, EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY 
EL1HU PALMER, AT NEW-YORK, IN THE YEAR 1804. 



The following fugitive pieces were written by Mr. Paine occa- 
sionally to pass off an idle hour, and communicated for the Pros- 
pect, to aid his friend, Mr. Palmer, in support of that publication. 
Perhaps, in some cases, it may appear that the same ideas have 
been expressed in his other work ; but, if so, the various points 
of view, in which they are here placed, it is presumed, will not. 
fail to give an interest to these miscellaneous remarks. 

The same signatures are continued as were subscribed to the 
original communications. 



REMARKS ON R. HALL'S SERMON. 

[The following piece, obligingly communicated by Mr. Paine, for the 
Prospect, is full of that acuieness of mind, perspicuity of expres- 
sion, and clearness of discernment for which this excellent author 
is so remarkable in all his writings.^ 

Robert Hall, a protestant minister in England, preached and 
published a sermon against what he calls " Modem Infidelity." A 
copy of it was sent to a gentleman in America, with a request for 
his opinion thereon. That gentleman sent it to a friend of his in 
New-York, with the request written on the cover — and this last 
sent it to Thomas Paine, who wrote the follwing observations on 
the blank leaf at the end of the Sermon. 

The preacher of the foregoing sermon speaks a great deal about 
infidelity, but does not define what he means by it. His harangue 
is a general exclamation. Every thing, I suppose, that is not in 
his «reed is infidelity with him, and his creed is infidelity with me. 
Infidelity is believing falsely. If what Christians believe is not 
true, it is the Christians that are the infidels. 

The point between deists and christians is not about doctrine, 
but about fact — ^for if the things believed by the christians to be 
facts, are not facts, the doctrine founded thereon falls of itself. 
There is such a book as the bible, but is it a fact that the bible is 
revealed religion ? The Christians cannot prove it is. They put 
tradition in place of evidence, and tradition is not proof. If it 
26 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



were, the reality of witches could be proved by the same kind of 
evidence. 

The bibie is a history of the times of which it speaks, and his- 
tory is not revelation. The obscene and vulgar stories in the bi- 
ble are as repugnant to our ideas of the purity of a divine Being, 
as the horrid cruelties and murders it ascribes to him, are repug- 
nant to our ideas of his justice. It is the reverence of the Deists 
for the attributes of the Deity, that causes them to reject the bible. 

Is the account which the christian church gives of the person 
called Jesus Christ, a fact or a fable ? Is it a fact that he was be- 
gotten by the holy Ghost ? The christians cannot prove it, for the 
case does not admit of proof. The things called miracles in the 
bible, such for instance as raising the dead, admitted, if true, of 
ocular demonstration, but the story of the conception of Jesus 
Christ in the womb is a case beyond miracle, for it did not admit 
of demonstration. Mary, the reputed mother of Jesus, who must 
be supposed to know best, never said so herself, and all the evi- 
dence of it is, that the book of Matthew says, that Joseph dreamed 
an angel told him so. Had an old maid of two or three hundred 
years of age, brought forth a child, it would have been much bet- 
ter presumptive evidence of a supernatural conception, than Mat- 
thew's story of Joseph's dream about his young wife. 

Is it a fact that Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world, and 
how is it proved ? If a God, he could not die, and as a man he 
could not redeem ; how then is this redemption proved to be fact? 
[t is said that Adam eat of the forbidden fruit, commonly called 
an apple, and thereby subjected himself and all his posterity for 
ever to eternal damnation. This is worse than visiting the sins 
jf the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth genera- 
tions. But how was the death of J esus Christ to affect or alter the 
case ? — Did God thirst for blood ? If so, would it not have been 
better to have crucified Adam at once upon the forbidden tree, 
and made a new man ? Would not this have been more creator- 
like, than repairing the old one ? Or, did God, when he made 
Adam, supposing the story to be true, exclude himself from the 
;ight of making another ? Or impose on himself the necessity of- 
areeding from the old stock ? Priests should first prove facts and 
deduce doctrines from them afterwards. But instead of this, they 
assume every thing, and prove nothing. Authorities drawn from 
he bible are no more than authorities drawn from other books, 
inless it can be proved that the bible is revelation. 

This story of the redemption will not stand examination. That 
nan should redeem himself from the sin of eating an apple, by 
jommitting a murder on Jesus Christ, is the strangest system of 
eligion ever set up. Deism is perfect purity compared with this, 
t is an established principle with the quakers not to shed blood — 
uppose then all Jerusalem had been quakers when Christ lived > 
here would have been nobody to crucify him, and in that case, if 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 303 

man is redeemed by his blood, which is the belief of the church, 
there could have been no redemption — and the people of Jerusa- 
lem must all have been damned, because they were too good to 
commit murder. The christian system of religion is an outrage 
on common sense. Why is man afraid to think ? 

Why do not the christians, to be consistent, make saints of Ju- 
das and Pontius Pilate, for they were the persons who accom- 
plished the act of salvation. The merit of a sacrifice, if there 
can be any merit in it, was never in the thing sacrificed, but in 
the persons offering up the sacrifice — and therefore Judas and 
Pontius Pilate ought to stand first on the calendar of saints. 

THOMAS PAINE. 



OF THE WORD RELIGION, 

AND OTHER WORDS OF UNCERTAIN SIGNIFICATION. 



The word religion is a word of forced application when used 
with respect to the worship of God. The root of the word is the 
Latin verb Hgo, to tie or bind. From ligo, comes religo, to tie or 
bind over again, or make more fast — from religo comes the sub- 
stantive religio, which with the addition of n makes tlie English 
substantive religion. The French use the word properly — when 
a woman enters a convent, she is called a noviciate , that is, she 
is upon trial or probation. When she takes the oath, she is call- 
ed a religieuse, that is, she is tied or bound by that oath to the 
performance of it. We use the word in the same kind of sense 
when we say we will religiously perform the promise that we 
make. 

But the word, without referring to its etymology, has, in the 
manner it is used, no definitive meaning, because it ctaes not de- 
signate what religion a man is of. There is the religion of the 
Chinese, of the Tartars, of the Bramins, of the Persians, of the 
Jews, of the Turks, &.c. 

The word Christianity is equally as vague as the word religion. 
No two sectaries can agree what it is. It is a lo here and lo there. 
The two principal sectaries, Papists and Protestants, have often 
cut each other's throats about it : — The Papists call the Protes- 
tants heretics, and the Protestants call. the Papists idolaters. 
The minor sectaries have shown the same spirit of rancour, but 
as the civil law restrains them from blood, they content them- 
selves with preaching damnation against each other. 



S04 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



The word protestant has a positive signification in the sense it 
is used. It means protesting against the authority of the Pope, 
and this is the only article in which the prostestants agree. In 
every other sense, with respect to religion, the word protestant 
is as vague as the word christian. When we say an episcopa- 
lian, a prebyterian, a baptist, a quaker, we know what those per- 
sons are, and what tenets they hold — but when we say a chris- 
tain, we know he is not a Jew nor a Mahometan, but we know 
not if he be a trinitarian or an anti-trinitarian, a believer in what 
is called the immaculate conception, or a disbeliever, a man of 
seven sacrament?, or of two sacraments, or of none. The word 
christian describes what a man is not, but not what he is. 

The word Theology, from Theos, the Greek word for God, and 
meaning the study and knowledge of God, is a word, that strictly 
speaking, belongs to Theists or Deists, and not to the christians* 
The head of the christian church is the person called Christ — but 
the head of the church of the Theists, or Deists, as they are 
more commonly called, from Deus, the Latin word for God, is God 
himself, and therefore the word Theology belongs to that church 
which has Theos or God for its head, and not to the christian 
church which has the person called Christ for its head. Their 
technical word is Christianity , and they cannot agree what Chris- 
tianity is. 

The words revealed religion, and natural religion, require also 
explanation. They are both invented terms, contrived by the 
church for the support of priest-craft. With respect to the first, 
there is no evidence of any such thing, except in the universal 
revelation, that God has made of his power, his wisdom, his good- 
ness, in the structure of the universe, and in all the works of 
creation. We have no cause or ground from any thing we be- 
hold in those works, to suppose God would deal partially by man- 
kind, and reveal knowledge to one nation and withhold it from 
another, and then damn them for not knowing it. The sun shines 
an equal quantity of light all over the world — and mankind in all 
ages and countries are endued with reason, and blessed with 
sight, to read the visible works of God in the creation, and so in- 
telligent is this book, that he that runs may read. We admire the 
wisdom of the ancients, yet they had no bibles, nor books, called 
revelation. They cultivated the reason that God gave them, 
studied him in his works, and arose to eminence. 

As to the bible, whether true or fabiilous, it is a history, and 
history is not revelation. If Solomon had seven hundred wives, 
and three hundred concubines, and if Sampson slept in Delilah's 
lap, and she cut his hair off, the relation of those things is mere 
history, that needed no revelatioja from heaven to tell it; neither 
does it need any revelation to tell us thaj Sampson, was a fool for 
his pains, and Solomon too. 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES 



305 



As to the expression so often used in the bible, that the word 
of the Lord came to such an one, or such an one, it was the 
fashion of speaking in those times, like the expression used by a 
quaker, that the spiiit moveth him, or that used by priests, that 
they have a call, 'We ought not to be deceived by phrases be- 
cause they are ancient. But if we admit the supposition that 
God would condescend to reveal himself in words, we ought not 
to believe it would be in such idle and profligate stories as are in 
the bible, and it is for this reason, among others which our 
reverence to God inspires, that the Deists deny that the book 
called the bible is the word of God, or that it is revealed religion. 

With respect to the term, natural religion, it is upon the face 
of it the opposite of artificial religion, and it is impossible for 
any man to be certain that what is called revealed religion, is not 
artificial. Man has the power of making books, inventing sto- 
ries of God, and calling them revelation or the word of God 
The Koran exists as an instance that this can be done, and we 
must be credulous indeed to suppose that this is the only in- 
stance, and Mahomet the only impostor. The Jews could match 
him, and the church of Rome could overmatch the Jews. The 
Mahometans believe the Koran, the Christians believe the Bible, 
and it is education makes all the difference. 

Books, whether Bibles or Korans, carry no evidence of being 
the work of any other power than man. It is only that which 
man cannot do that carries the evidence of being the work of a 
superior power. Man could not invent and make a universe — 
he could not invent nature, for nature is of divine origin. It is 
the laws by which the universe is governed. When, therefore, 
we look through nature up to nature's God, we are in the right 
road of happiness ; but when we trust to books as the word of 
God and confide in them as revealed religion, we are afloat on 
an ocean of uncertainty, and shatter into contending factions. 
The term, therefore, natural religion, explains itself to be divine 
religion, and the term revealed religion involves in it the suspicion 
of being artificial. 

To show the necessity of understanding the meaning of words, 
I will mention an instance of a minister, I believe of the episco- 
palian church of Newark, in Jersey. He wrote and published 
a book, and entitled it, " An Antidote to Deism" An antidote to 
Deism, must be Atheism. It has no other antidote — for what can 
be an antidote to the belief of a God, but the disbelief of God. 
Under the tuition of such pastors, what but ignorance and false 
information can be expected. T. P. 



26* 



306 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



OF CAIN AND ABEL, 



The story of Cain and Abel is told in the fourth chapter of 
Genesis ; Cain was the elder brother, and Abel the younger, 
and Cain killed Abel. The Egyptian story of Typhon and Osi- 
ris, and the Jewish story in Genesis of Cain and Abel, have the 
appearance of being the same story differently told, and that it 
came originally from Egypt. 

In the Egyptian story, Typhon and Osiris are brothers ; Ty- 
phon is the elder, and Osiris the younger, and Typhon kills Osi- 
ris. The story is an allegory on darkness and light ; Typhon, 
the elder brother, is darkness, because darkness was supposed 
to be more ancient than light : Osiris is the good light who rules 
during the summer months, and brings forth the fruits of the 
earth, and is the favourite, as Abel is said to have been, for 
which Typhon hates him ; and when the winter comes, and cold 
and darkness overspread the earth, Typhon is represented as 
having killed Osiris out of malice, as Cain is said to have killed 
Abel. 

The two stories are alike in their circumstances and their 
event, and are probably but the same story ; what corroborates 
this opinion, is, that the fifth chapter of Genesis historically con- 
tradicts the reality of the story of Cain and Abel in the fourth 
chapter, for though the name of Seth, a son of Adam, is men- 
tioned in the fourth chapter, he is spoken of in the fifth chap- 
ter as if he was the first-born of Adam. The chapter begins 
thus : — 

" This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day 
that God created man, in the likeness of God created he him 
Male and female created he them, and blessed them, and called 
their name Adam in the day when they were created. And 
Adam lived an hundred and thirty years and begat a son, in his 
own likeness and after his own image, and called his name Seth" 
The rest of the chapter goes on with the genealogy. 

Any body reading this chapter cannot suppose there were any 
sons born before Seth. The chapter begins with what is called 
the creation of Adam, and calls itself the book of the generations 
of Adam, yet no mention is made of such persons as Cain and 
Abel ; one thing, however, is evident on the face of these two 
chapters, which is, that the same person is not the writer of both ; 
the most blundering historian could not have committed himself 
in such a manner. 

Though I look on every thing in the first ten chapters <Jf Gen- 
esis to be fiction, yet fiction historically told should be consistent, 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



307 



whereas these two chapters are not. The Cain and Abel of 
Genesis appear to be no other than the ancient Egyptian story of 
Typhon and Osiris, the darkness and the light, which answered 
very well as an allegory without being believed as a fact. 



OF THE TOWER OF BABEL. 



The story of the tower of Babel is told in the eleventh chap- 
ter of Genesis. It begins thus : — " And the whole earth (it was 
but a very little part of it they knew) was of one language and 
of one speech. — And it came to pass as they journeyed from the 
east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt 
there. — And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick 
and burn them thoroughly, and they had brick for stone, and 
slime had they for mortar. — And they said, Go to, let us build us 
a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us 
make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the 
whole earth. — And the Lord came down to see the city and the 
tower which the children of men builded. — And the Lord said, 
behold the people is one, and they have all one language, and 
this they begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from 
them which they have imagined to do. — Go to, let us go down and 
there confound their language, that they may not understa-ad one 
another's speech. — So (that is, by that means) the Lord scatter- 
ed them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth, and 
they left off building the city." 

This is the story, and a very foolish inconsistent story it is. 
In the first place, the familiar and irreverend manner in which 
the Almighty is spoken of in this chapter, is offensive to a serious 
mind. As to the project of building a tower whose top should 
reach to heaven, there never could be a people so foolish as to 
have such a notion ; but to represent the Almighty as jealous of 
the attempt, as the writer of the story has done, is adding profa- 
nation to folly. "Go /o," say the builders, u let us build us a 
tower whose top shall reach to heaven." u Go /o," says God, 
" let us go down and confound their language." This quaintness 
is indecent, and the reason given for it is worse, for, " now no- 
thing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to 
do." This is representing the Almighty as jealous of their get- 
ting into heaven. The story is too ridiculous, even as a fable, to 
account for the diversity of languages in the world, for which it 
seems to have been intended. 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



As to the project of confounding their language for the pur- 
pose of making them separate, it is altogether inconsistent ; be- 
cause, instead of producing this effectj it would, by increasing 
their difficulties, render them more necessary to each other, and 
cause them to keep together. Where could they go to better 
themselves ? 

Another observation upon this story is, the inconsistency of it 
with respect to the opinion that the bible is the word of God giv- 
en for the information of mankind : for nothing could so effectu- 
ally prevent such a word being known by mankind as confounding 
their language. The people who after this spoke different lan- J 
guages could no more understand such a word generally, than the 1 
builders of Babel could understand one another. It would have 
been necessary, therefore, had such word ever been given or in- ! 
tended to be given, that the whole earth .should be, as they say 1 
it was at first, of one language and of one speech, and that it 
should never have been confounded. 

The case however is, that the bible will not bear examination 
in any part of it, which it would do if it was the word of God. 1 
Those who most believe it are those who know least about it, and 
priests always take care to keep the inconsistent and contradic- 
tory oarts out of sight. T. P 



Of the religion of Deism compared with the Christian Religion, and 
the superiority of the former over the latter. 

Every person, of whatever religious denomination he may be, 
is a Deist in the first article of his Creed. Deism, from the Latin 
word Deus, God, is the belief of a God, and this belief is the first 
article of every man's creed. 

It is on this article, universally consented to by all mankind, 
that the Deist builds his church, and here he rests. Whenever 
we step aside from this article, by mixing it with articles of hu- 
man invention, we wander into a labyrinth of uncertainty and fa- 
ble, and become exposed to every kind of imposition by pretend- 
ers to revelation. The Persian shows the Zendavista of Zoro- 
aster, the lawgiver of Persia, and calls it the divine law ; the 
Bramin shows the Shaster, revealed, he says, by God to Brama, 
and given to him out of a cloud ; the J ew shows what he calls 
the law of Moses, given, he says, by God, on the Mount Sinai ; 
the Christian shows a collection of books and epistles, written by 
nobodv knows who, and called the New Testament ; and the 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



309 



Mahometan shows the Koran, given, he says, by God to Mahom- 
et : each of these calls itself revealed religion, and the only true 
word of God, and this the followers of each profess to believe 
from the habit of education, and each believes the others are im- 
posed upon. 

But when the divine gift of reason begins to expand itself in the 
mind and calls man to reflection, he then reads and contemplates 
God in his works, and not in books pretending to be revelations. 
The Creation is the bible of the true believer in God. Every 
thing in this vast volume inspires him with sublime ideas of the 
Creator. The little and paltry, and often obscene, tales of the 
bible sink into wretchedness when put in comparison with this 
mighty work. The Deist needs none of those tricks and shows 
called miracles to confirm his faith, for what can be a greater mira- 
cle than the Creation itself, and his own existence. 

There is a happiness in Deism, when rightly understood, that is 
not to be found in any other system of religion. All other systems 
have something in them that either shock our reason, or are re- 
pugnant to it, and man, if he thinks at all, must stifle his reason in 
order to force himself to believe them. But in Deism our reason 
and our belief become happily united. The wonderful structure 
of the universe, and every thing we behold in the system of the 
creation, prove to us, far better than books can do, the existence of 
a God, and at the same time proclaim his attributes. It is by the 
exercise of our reason that we are enabled to contemplate God in 
his works and imitate him in his ways. When we see his care and 
goodness extended over all his creatures, it teaches us our duty 
towards each other, while it calls forth our gratitude to him. It 
is by forgetting God in his works, and running after the books of 
pretended revelation that man has wandered from the straight 
path of duty and happiness, and become by turns the victim of 
doubt and the dupe of delusion. 

Except in the first article in the Christian creed, that of believ- 
ing in God, there is not an article in it but fills the mind with 
doubt as to the truth of it, the instant man begins to think. , Now 
every article in a creed that is necessary to the happiness and sal- 
vation of man, ought to be as evident to the reason and compre- 
hension of man as the first article is, for God has not given us 
reason for the purpose of confounding us, but that we should use 
it for our own happiness and his glory. 

The truth of the first article is proved by God himself, and is 
uniyersal ; for the creation is of itself demonstration of the existence 
of a Creator. But the second article, that of God's begetting a 
son, is not proved in like manner, and stands on no other author*- 
ity than that of a tale. Certain books in what is called the New 
Testament tell us that Joseph dreamed that an angel told him so. 
(Matthew chap. 1, v. 20.) "And behold the angel of the Lord 
appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Joseph thou son of David, 



310 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 

fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is con* 
ceived in her is of the Holy Ghost." The evidence upon this ar- 
ticle bears no comparison with the evidence upon the first article, 
and therefore is not entitled to the same credit, and ought not to 
be made an article in a creed, because the evidence of it is defec- 
tive, and what evidence there is, is doubtful and suspicious. We 
do not believe the first article on the authority of books, whether 
called Bibles or Korans, nor yet on the visionary authority of 
dreams, but on the authority of God's own visible works in the 
creation. The nations who never heard of such books, nor of 
such people as Jews, Christians, or Mahometans, believe the exist- 
ence of a God as fully as we do, because it is self evident. The 
work of man's hands is a proof of the existence of man as fully as 
his personal appearance would be. When we see a watch, we 
have as positive evidence of the existence of a watch-maker, as 
if we saw him ; and in like manner the creation is evidence to our 
reason and our senses of the existence of a Creator. But there 
is nothing in the works of God that is evidence that he begat a son, 
nor any thing in the system of creation that corroborates such an 
idea, and therefore we are not authorized in believing it. 

But presumption can assume any thing, and therefore it makes 
Joseph's dream to be of equal authority with the existence uf 
God, and to help it on calls it revelation. It is impossible for the 
mind of man in its serious moments, however it may have been 
entangled by education, or beset by priest-craft, not to stand still 
and doubt upon the truth of this article and of its creed. But 
this is not all. 

The second article of the Christian creed having brought the 
son of Mary into the world, (and this Mary, according to the 
chronological tables,' was a girl of only fifteen years of age when 
this son was born,) the next article goes on to account for his be- 
ing begotten, which was, that when he grew a man he should be 
put to death, to expiate, they say, the sin that Adam brought into 
the world by eating an apple or some kind of forbidden fruit. 

But though this is the creed of the church of Rome, from 
whence the Protestants borrowed it, it is a creed which that church 
has manufactured of itself, for it is not contained in, nor derived 
from, the book called the New Testament. The four books call- 
ed the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which give, 
or pretend to give, the birth, sayings, life, preaching, and death 
of Jesus Christ, make no mention of what is called the fall of 
man ; nor is the name of Adam to be found in any of those books, 
which it certainly would be, if the writers of them believed that 
Jesus was begotten, born, and died for the purpose of redeeming 
mankind from the sin which Adam had brought into the world. 
Jesus never speaks of Adam himself, of the garden of Eden, nor 
of what is called the fall of man. 

Bat the church of Rome having set up its new religion which 




MISCELLANEOUS PIECES, 



311 



it called Christianity, and invented the creed which it named the 
apostles creed, in which it calls J esus the only son of God, con- 
ceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary, things of 
which it is impossible that man or woman can have any idea, and 
consequently no belief but in words ; and for which there is no 
authority but the idle story of Joseph's dream in the first chapter 
of Matthew, which any designing impostor or foolish fanatic 
might make. It then manufactured the allegories in the book 
of Genesis into fact, and the allegorical tree of life and the tree 
of knowledge into real trees, contrary to the belief of the first 
christians, and for which there is not the least authority in any 
of the books of the New Testament ; for in none of them is there 
any mention made of such place as the Garden of Eden, nor of 
any thing that is said to have happened there. 

But the church of Rome could not erect the person called Je- 
sus into a S aviour of the world without making the allegories in 
the book of Genesis into fact, though the New Testament, as be- 
fore observed, gives no authority for it. All at once the allego- 
rical tree of knowledge became, according to the church, a real 
tree, the fruit of it real fruit, and the eating of it sinful. As 
priest-craft was always the enemy of knowledge, because priest- 
; craft supports itself by keeping people in delusion and ignorance, 
it was consistent with its policy to make the acqusition of knowl- 



The church of Rome having done this, it then brings forward 
Jesus the son of Mary as suffering death to redeem mankind 
from sin, which Adam, it says, had brought into the world by eat- 
ing the fruit of the tree of knowledge. But as it is impossible 
for reason to believe such a story, because it can see no reason 
for it, nor have any evidence of it, the church then tells us we 
must not regard our reason, but must believe, as it were, and that 
through thick and thin, as if God had given man reason like a 
plaything, or a rattle, on purpose to make fun of him. Reason 
is the forbidden tree of priest-craft, and may serve to explain the 
allegory of the forbidden tree of knowledge, for we may reason- 
ably suppose the allegory had some meaning and application at 
the time it was invented. It was the practice of the eastern na- 
tions to convey their meaning by allegory, and relate it in the 
manner of fact. Jesus followed the same method, yet nobody 
ever supposed the allegory or parable of the Rich Man and Laz- 
arus, the Prodigal Son, the ten Virgins, Sic. were facts. Why 
I then should the tree of knowledge, which is far more romantic in 
idea than the parables in the New Testament are, be supposed 
i to be a real tree.* The answer to this is, because the church 



| *The remark of Emperor Julien, on the story of the Tree of Knowledge is worth 
i observing, " If," said he, " there ever had l>een, or could be, a Tree of Knowledge, 
| instead of God forbidding man to eat thereof, it would be that of which he would or- 
der him to «3at the most." 



edge a real sin. 



312 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



could not make its new fangled system, which it called Christian 
ity, hold together without it. To have made Christ to die on ac- 
count of an allegorical tree would have been too bare-faced a 
fable. 

But the account, as it is given of Jesus in the New Testament, 
even visionary as it is, does not support the creed of the church 
that he died for the redemption of the world. According to that 
account he was crucified and buried on Friday, and rose again 
in good health on the Sunday morning, for we do not hear that 
he was sick. This cannot be called dying, and is rather making 
fun of death than suffering it. There are thousands of men and 
women also, who, if they could know they should come back 
again in good health in about thirty-six hours, would prefer such 
kind of death for the sake of the experiment, and to know what 
the other side of the grave was. Why then should that which 
would be only a voyage of curious amusement to us be magnifi- 
ed into merit and sufferings in him ? If a God he could not suf- 
fer death, for immortality cannot die, and as a man his death 
could be no more than the death of any other person. 

The belief of the redemption of Jesus Christ is altogether 
an invention of the church of Rome, not the doctrine of the 
New Testament. What the writers cf the New Testament at- 
tempt to prove by the story of Jesus is, the resarrectimi of the 
same body from the grave, which was the belief of the Pharisees, 
in opposition to the Sadducees (a sect of Jews) who denied it. 
Paul, who was brought up a Pharisee, labours hard at this point, 
for it was the creed of his own Pharisaical church. The XV. 
chap. 1st of Corinthians is full of supposed cases and assertions 
about the resurrection of the same body, but there is not a word 
in it about redemption. This chapter makes part of the funeral 
service of the Episcopal church. The dogma of the redemp- 
tion is the fable of priest-craft invented since the time the New 
Testament was compiled, and the agreeable delusion of it suited 
with the depravity of immoral livers. When men are taught to 
ascribe all their crimes and vices to the temptations of the Devil, 
and to believe that Jesus, by his death, rubs all off and pays their 
passage to heaven gratis, they become as careless in morals as 
a spendthrift would be of money, were he told that his father 
had engaged to pay off all his scores. It is a doctrine, not only 
dangerous to morals in this world, but to our happiness in the 
next world, because it holds out such a cheap, easy, and lazy 
way of getting to heaven as has a tendency to induce men to 
hug the delusion of it to their own injury. 

But there are times when men have serious thoughts, andit is 
at such times when they begin to think, that they begin to doubt 
the truth of the Christian religion, and well they may, for it is 
too fanciful and too full of conjecture, inconsistency, improbabil- 
ity, and irrationality, to afford consolation to the thoughtful man. 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 3l3 

His reason revolts against his creed. He sees that none of its 
articles are proved or can be proved. He may believe that such 
a person as is called J esus (for Christ was* not his name) was 
born and grew to be a man, because it is no more than a natural 
and probable case. But who is to prove he is the son of God, 
that he was begotten by the Holy Ghost ? Of these things there 
can be no proof ; and that which admits not of proof, and is 
against the laws of probability, and the order of nature, which 
God himself has established, is not an object for belief. God has 
not given man reason to embarrass him, but to prevent his being 
imposed upon. 

He may believe that Jesus was crucified, because many oth- 
ers were crucified, but who is to prove he was crucified for the 
sins of the world ? This article has no evidence, not even in the 
New Testament ; and if it had, where is the proof that the 
New Testament, in relating things neither probable nor provea- 
ble, is to be believed as true ? When an article in a creed does 
not admit of proof nor of probability, the salvo is to call it reve- 
lation : But this is only putting one difficulty in the place of an- 
other, for it is as impossible to prove a thing to be revelation as 
it is to prove that Mary was gotten with child by the Holy Ghost. 

Here it is that the religion of Deism is superior to the chris- 
tian religion. It is free from all those invented and torturing 
articles that shock our reason or injure our humanity, and with 
which the Christian religion abounds. Its creed is pure and 
sublimely simple. It believes in God, and there it rests. It 
honours reason as the choicest gift of God to man, and the fac- 
ulty by which he is enabled to contemplate the power, wisdom 
and goodness of the Creator displayed in the creation ; and re- 
posing itself on his protection, both here and hereafter, it avoids 
all presumptuous beliefs, and rejects, as the fabulous inventions 
of men, all books pretending to revelation. T P. 



314 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



TO THE MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY, STYLING ITSELF THE 
MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 



The New- York Gazette of the 16th (August) contains the following 
article— On Tuesday, a Committee of the Missionary Society 7 
consisting chiefly of distinguished Clergymen, had an interview at 
the City Hotel, ivith the Chiefs of th> Osage tribe of Indians^ 
now in this City, (New- York) to whom they presented a Bible, 
together with an Jlddress, the object of which u?as,'to inform them 
that this good book contained the will and laws of the GREAT 
SPIRIT." 



It is to be hoped some humane person will, on account of our 
people on the frontiers, as well as of the Indians, undeceive 
them with respect to the present the Missionaries have made 
them, arid which they call a good book, containing, they say, the 
will and laws of the GREAT SPIRIT. Can those Missionaries 
suppose that the assassination of men, women, and children, and 
sucking infants, related in the books ascribed to Moses, Joshua, 
&c. and blasphemously said to be done by the command of the 
Lord, the Great Spirit, can be edifying to our Indian neighbours, 
or advantageous to us ? Is not the Bible warfare the same kind 
of, warfare as the Indians themselves carry on, that of indiscrim- 
inate destruction, and against which humanity shudders ; can the 
horrid examples and vulgar obscenity, with which the Bible , 
abounds, improve the morals, or civilize the manners of the In- 
dians ? Will they learn sobriety and decency from drunken 
Noah and beastly Lot ; or will their daughters be edified by the 
example of Lot's daughters ? Will the prisoners they take in 
war be treated the better by their knowing the horrid story of 
Samuel's hewing Agag in pieces like a block of wood, or David's 
putting them under harrows of Iron ? Will not the shocking 
accounts of the destruction of the Canaanites when the Israel- 
ites invaded their country, suggest the idea that we may serve 
them in the same manner, or the accounts stir them up to do the 
like to our people on the frontiers, and then justify the assassina- 
tion by the Bible the Missionaries have given them ? Will those 
Missionary Societies never leave off doing mischief ? 

In the account which this missionary Committee gave of their 
interview, they make the Chief of the Indians to say, that, u as 
neither he nor his people could read it, he begged that some 
good white man might be sent to instruct them." 

It is necessary the General Government keep a strict eye over 
those Missionary Societies, who under the pretence of instruct- 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES 315 

ing the Indians, send spies into their country to find out the best 
lands. No society should be permitted to have intercourse with 
the Indian tribes, nor send any person among them, but with the 
knowledge and consent of the Government. The present ad- 
ministration has' brought the Indians into a good disposition, and 
is improving them in the moral and civil comforts of life ; but if 
these self-created societies be suffered to interfere, and send their 
speculating Missionaries among them, the laudable object of 
Government will be defeated. Priests, we know, are not remark- 
able for doing any thing gratis ; they have, in general, some 
scheme in every thing they do, either to impose on the ignorant 
or derange the operations of Government. 

A FRIEND TO THE INDIANS. 



OF TJ3E SABBATH DAY OF CONNECTICUT. 



The word Sabbath means rest, tbat is, cessation from labour ; 
but the stupid Blue Laws* of Connecticut make a labour of rest, 
for they oblige a person to sit still from sun-rise to sun-set on a 
Sabbath day, which is hard work. Fanaticism made those laws, 
and hypocrisy pretends to reverence them, for where such laws 
prevail hypocrisy will prevail also. 

One of those laws says, " No person shall run on a Sabbath 
day, nor walk in his garden, nor elsewhere, but reverently to and 
from meeting." These fanatical hypocrites forget that God 
dwells not in temples made with hands, and that the earth is full 
of his glory. One of the finest scenes and subjects of religious 
contemplation is to walk into the woods and fields, and survey 
the works of the God of the Creation. The wide expanse of 
heaven, the earth covered with verdure, the lofty forest, the Wav- 
ing corn, the magnificent roll of mighty rivers, and the murmur- 
ing melody of the cheerful brooks, are scenes that inspire the 
mind with gratitude and delight ; but this the gloomy Calvinist 
of Connecticut must not behold on a Sabbath day. Entombed 
within the Walls of his dwelling, he shuts from his view the tem- 
ple of creation. The sun shines no joy to him. The gladden- 
ing voice of nature calls on him in Vain. He is deaf, dumb, and 
blind to every thing around him that God has made. Such is 
the Sabbath day of Connecticut. 

From whence could come this miserable notion of devo'tion ? 
It comes from the gloominess of the Calvinistic creed. If men 

* They were called Blue Laws because they were originally printed on blue paper. 



316 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



love darkness rather than light, because their works are evil, the 
ulcerated mind of a Calvinist, who sees God only in terror, and 
sits brooding over the scenes of hell and damnation, can have 
no joy in beholding the glories of the creation. Nothing in that 
mighty and wondrous system accords with his principles or his 
devotion. He sees nothing there that tells him that God created 
millions on purpose to be damned, and that children of a span 
long are born to burn for ever in hell. The creation preaches a 
different doctrine to this. We there see that the care and good- 
ness of God is extended impartially over all the creatures he has 
made. The worm of the earth shares his protection equally with 
the elephant of the desert. The grass that springs beneath our 
feet grows by his bounty as well as the cedars of Lebanon. Ev- 
ery thing in the creation reproaches the Calvinist with unjust ide- 
as of God, and disowns the hardness and ingratitude of his prin- 
ciples. Therefore he shuns the sight of them on a Sabbath day, 
AN -ENEMY TO CANT AND IMPOSITION 



OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT. 



Archbishop Tillotson says, "The difference between the 
style of the Old and New Testament is so very remarkable, that 
one of the greatest sects in the primitive times, did, upon this 
Yery ground, found their heresy of two Gods, the one evil, fierce, 
and cruel, whom they called the God of the Old Testament ; 
the other good, kind, and merciful, whom they called the God of 
the New Testament ; so great a difference is there between the 
representations that are given of God in the books of the Jewish 
and Christian Religion, as to give, at least, some colour and pre- 
tence to an imagination of two Gods." Thus far Tillotson. 

But the case was, that as the Church had picked out several 
passages from the Old Testament, which she most absurdly and 
falsely calls prophecies of Jesus Christ, (whereas there is no pro- 
phecy of any such person, as any one may see by examining the 
passages and the cases to which they apply,) she was under the 
necessity of keeping up the credit of the Old Testament, be- 
cause if that fell the other would soon follow, and the Christian 
system of faith would soon be at an end. , As a book of morals, 
there are several parts of the New Testament that are good : 
but they are no other than what had been preached in the East- 
ern world several hundred years before Christ was born. Con- 
fucius, the Chinese philosopher, who lived five hundred years 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES 



317 



before the time of Christ, says, acknowledge thy benefits by the 
return of benefits, but never revenge injuries. 

The clergy in Popish countries were cunning enough to know, 
that if the Old Testament was made public, the fallacy of the 
New, with respect to Christ, would be detected, and they pro- 
hibited the use of it, and always took it away wherever they 
found it. The Deists, on the contrary, always encouraged the 
reading it, that people might see and judge for themselves, that 
a Book so full of contradictions and wickedness, could not be 
the word of God, and that we dishonour God by ascribing it to 
him. 

A TRUE DEIST. 



Hints towards forming a Society for inquiring into the truth or 
falsehood of ancient History, so far as History is connected with 
systems of religion, ancient and modern. 



It has been customary to class history into three divisions, dis- 
tinguished by the names of Sacred, Profane, and Ecclesiastical. 
By the first is meant the Bible ; by the second, the history of 
nations, of men and things ; and by the third, the history of the 
church and its priesthood. 

Nothing is more easy than to give names, and therefore mere 
names signify nothing unless they lead to the discovery of some 
cause for which that name was given. For example, Sunday is 
the name given to the first day of the week, in the English lan- 
guage, and it is the same in the Latin, that is, it has the same 
meaning, (Dies Solis) and also in the German, and in several 
other languages. Why then was this name given to that day ? 
Because it was the day dedicated by the ancient world to the 
luminary, which in English we call the Sun, and therefore the 
day Sun-day, or the day of the Sun ; as in the like manner we 
call the second day Monday, the day dedicated to the Moon. 

Here the name, Sunday, leads to the cause of its being called 
so, and we have visible evidence of the fact, because we behold 
the Sun from whence the name comes ; but this is not the case 
j when we distinguish one part of history from another by the 
I name of Sacred. All histories have been written by men. We 
! have no evidence, nor any cause to believe, that any have been 
| written by God. That part of the Bible called the Old Tegta- 
ment, is the history of the Jewish nation, from the time of Abra- 
I ham, which begins in the 11th chap, of Genesis, to the downfall 



313 



MISCELLANEOUS PIE*CES. 



of that nation by Nebuchadnezzar, and is no more entitled to be 
called sacred than any other history. It is altogether the con- 
trivance of priestcraft that has given it that name. So far from 
its being sacred, it has not the appearance of being true in many 
of the things it relates. It must be better authority than a book, 
which any impostor might make, as Mahomet made the Koran, 
to make a thoughtful man believe that the sun and moon stood 
still, or that Moses and Aaron turned the Nile, which is larger 
than the Delaware, into blood, and that the Egyptian magicians 
did the same. These things have too much the appearance of 
romance to be believed for fact. 

It would be of use to inquire, and ascertain the time, when 
that part of the bible called the Old Testament first appeared. 
From all that can be collected there was no such book till after 
the Jews returned from captivity in Babylon, and that it is the 
work of the Pharisees of the Second Temple. How they came 
to make the 19th chapter of the 2d book of kings, and the 37th 
of Isaiah-, word for word alike, can only be accounted for by 
their having no plan to go by, and not knowing what they were 
about. The same is the case with respect to the last verses in 
the 2d book of Chronicles, and the first verses in Ezra, they also 
are word for word alike, which shows that the Bible has been put 
together at random. 

But besides these things there is great reason to believe we 
have Le'en imposed upon, whh respect to the antiquity of the 
bible, and especially with respect to the books ascribed to Moses. 
Herodotus, who is catted the father of history, and is the most 
ancient historian wrrose works have reached to our time, and 
who travelled into Egypt, conversed with the priests, historians, 
astronomers, and learned men of that country, for the purpose 
of obtaining all the information cf it he could, and who gives an 
account of the ancient state of it, makes no mention of such a 
man as Moses, though the bible makes him to have been the 
greatest hero there, nor of any one circumstance mentioned in 
the book of Exodus, respecting Egypt, such as turning the riv- 
ers into blood, the dust into lice, the death of the first born 
throughout ail the land of Egypt, the passage of the Red-sea, 
the drowning of Pharaoh and all his host, things which could 
not have been a secret in Egypt, and must have been generally 
known, had they been facts ; and therefore as no such things 
were known in Egypt, nor any such man as Moses, at the time 
Herodotus was there, wiiich is about two thousand two hundred 
years ago, it shows that the account of these things in the book 
ascribed to Moses is a made story of later times, that is, after 
the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, and that 
Moses is not the author of the books ascribed to him. 

With respect to the cosmogany, o*r account of the creation in 
the first chapter .of Genesis, of the Garden of Eden in the sec* 



MISCELLANEOUS PIE'CErS. 



319 



©nd chapter, and of what is called the fall of man in the third 
chapter, there is something concerning them we are not histori- 
cally acquainted with, In none of the books of the bible after 
Genesis, are any of these things mentioned, or even alluded to. 
How is this to be accounted for ? The obvious inference is, that 
either they were not known, or not believed to be facts, by the 
writers of the other books of the bible, and that Moses is not the 
author of the chapters where these accounts are given. 

The next question on the case is, how did the Jews come by 
these notions, and at what time were they written ? 

To answer this question we must first consider what the state 
of the world was at the time the Jews began to be a people, for 
the Jews are but a modern race, compared with the antiquity of 
other nations. At the time there were, even by their own ac- 
count, but thirteen jews or Israelites in the world, Jacob and his 
twelve sons, and four of these were bastards. The nations of 
Egypt, Chaldea, Persia and India, were great and populous, 
abounding in learning and science, particularly in the knowledge 
% of Astronomy, of which the Jews were always ignorant. The 
chronological tables mention, that eclipses were observed at Ba- 
bylon above two thousand years before the Christian era, which 
was before there was a single Jew or Israelite in the world. 

All those ancient nations had their cosmoganies, that is, their 
accounts how the creation was made, long before there was such 
people as Jews or Israelites. An account of these cosmoganies 
of India and Persia is given by Henry Lord, Chaplain to the 
East India Company, at Surat, and published in London in 1630. 
The writer of this has seen a copy of the edition of 1630, and 
made extracts from it. The work, which is now scarce, was 
dedicated by Lord to the Arch Bishop of Canterbury. 

We know that the Jews were carried captives into Babylon, by 
Nebuchadnezzar, and remained in captivity several years, when 
they were liberated by Cyrus, king of Persia. During their captiv- 
ity they would have had an opportunity of acquiring some knowl- 
edge of the cosmogany of the Persians, or at least of getting some 
ideas how to fabricate one to put at the head of their own histo- 
ry after their return from captivity. This will account for the 
eause, for some cause there must have been, that no mention, nor 
reference is made to the cosmogany in Genesis in any of the 
books of the bible, supposed to have been written before the 
captivity, nor is the name of Adam to be found in any of those 
books. 

The books of Chronicles were written after the return of the 
Jews from captivity, for the third chapter of the first book gives 
a list of all the Jewish kings from David to Zedekiah, who was 
carried captive into Babylon, and to four generations beyond the 
time of Zedekiah. In the first verse of the first chapter of this 
book the name of Adam is mentioned, but not in any book in the 



320 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



bible, written before that time, nor could it be, for Adam and Eve 
are names taken from the cosmogany of the Persians. Henry 
Lord, in his- book, written from Surat, and dedicated, as I have 
already said, to the Arch Bishop of Canterbury, says that in the 
Persian cosmogany the name of the first man was AdamoJi, and 
of the woman Hevah* From hence comes the Adam and Eve 
of the book of Genesis. In the cosmogany of India, of which 
I shall speak in a future number, the name of the first man was 
Pourous, and of the woman Parcoidee. We want a knowledge 
of the Sanscrit language of India to understand the meaning of 
the names, and I mentioned it in this place, only to show that it 
is from the cosmogany of Persia rather than that of India that 
the cosmogany in Genesis has been fabricated by the Jews, who 
returned from captivity by the liberality of Cyrus, king of Per- 
sia. There is, however, reason to conclude, on the authority of 
Sir William Jones, who resided several years in India, that these 
names were very expressive in the language to which they be- 
longed, for in speaking of this language be says (see the Asiatic 
researches) " The Sanscrit language, whatever be its antiquity, 
is of wonderful structure ; it is more perfect than the Greek, more 
copious than the Datin, and more exquisitely refined than either." 

These hints, which ar« intended to be continued, will serve to 
show that a society for inquiring into the ancient state of the 
world, and the state of ancient history, so far as history is con- 
nected with systems of religion ancient and modern, may become 
a useful and instructive institution. There is good reason to be- 
lieve we have been in great error, with respect to the antiquity 
of the Bible, as well as imposed upon by its contents. Truth 
ought to be the object of every man ; for without truth -there can 
be no real happiness to a thoughtful mind, or any assurance of 
happiness hereafter. It is the duty of man to obtain all the 
knowledge he can. and then make the best use of it 

T, P. 



TO MR. MOORE, OF NEW YORK, 

COMMONLY CALLED 

BISHOP MOORE. 



I have read in the newspapers your account of the visit you 
made to the unfortunate General Hamilton, and of administering 

* In an English edition of the Bible, in 15S3, the first woman is called Hevah. 

Editor of the Prospect. 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



321 



to him a ceremony of your church, which you call the Holy Com- 
munion. 

I regret the fate of General Hamilton, and I so far hope with 
you that it will be a warning to thoughtless man not to sport 
away the life that God has given him ; but with respect to other 
parts of your letter I think it very reprehensible, and betrays 
great ignorance of what true religion is. But you are a priest, 
you get your living by it, and it is not your worldly interest to 
undeceive yourself. 

After giving an account of your administering to the deceased 
what you call the Holy Communion, you add, " By reflecting on 
this melancholy event, let the humble believer be encouraged 
ever to hold fast that precious faith wlrich is the only source of 
true consolation in the last extremity of nature. Let the infidel 
be persuaded to abandon his opposition to the Gospel." 

To show you, sir, that your promise of consolation from scrip- 
ture has no foundation to stand upon, I will cite to you one of 
the greatest falsehoods upon record, and which was given, as the 
record says, for the purpose, and as a promise of consolation. 

In the epistle called " the First Epistle of Paul to the Thes- 
salonians," (chap. 4) the writer consoles the Thessalonians as to 
the case of their friends who were already dead. He does this 
by informing them, and he does it he says, by the word of the 
Lord, (a most notorious falsehood) that the general resurrection 
of the dead, and the ascension of the living, will be in his and 
their days ; that their friends will then come to life again ; that 
the dead in Christ will rise first. — " Then we, (says he, v. 17) 
which are alive, and remain, shall be caught up together with 
them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we 
ever be with the Lord — wherefore comfort one another with these 
words." 

Delusion and falsehood cannot be carried higher than they are 
in this passage. You, sir, are but a novice in the art. The 
words admit of no equivocation. The whole passage is ki the 
first person and the present tense, " We which are alive." Had 
the writer meant a future time, and a distant generation, it must 
have been in the third person and the future tense, " They who 
shall then be alive." I am thus particular for the purpose of 
nailing you down to the text, that you may not ramble from it, 
nor put other constructions upon the words than they will bear, 
which priests are very apt to do. 

Now, sir, it is impossible for serious man, to whom God has 
given the divine gift of reason, and who employs that reason to 
reverence and adore the God that gave it, it is, I say, impossible 
i for such a man to put confidence in a book that abounds with 
j fable and falsehood, as the New Testament does. This passage 
I is but a sample of what I could give you. 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



You call on those whom you style " infidels,^ (and they in re- 
turn might call you an idolator, a worshipper of false gods, a 
preacher of false doctrine) " to abandon their opposition to the 
Gospel." Prove, sir, the Gospel to be true, and the opposition 
will cease of itself ; but until you do this, (which we know you 
cannot do) you have no right to expect they will notice your call. 
If by infidels you mean Deists, (and you must be exceedingly ig- 
norant of the origin of the word Deist; and know but little of 
Beits, to put that construction upon it,) you will find yourself 
over-matched if you begin to engage in a controversy with them. 
Priests may dispute with priests, and sectaries with sectaries, 
about the meaning of what they agree to call scripture, and end 
as they began ; but when you engage with a Deist you must 
keep to fact. Now, sir, you cannot prove a single article of 
your religion to be true, and we tell you so publicly. Do it, if 
you can. The Deistical article, the belief of a God, with which 
your creed begins, has been borrowed by your phurch from the 
ancient Deists, and even this article you dishonour by putting a 
dream-be gotten phantom,* which you call his son, over his head, 
and treating God as if he was superannuated. Deism is the only 
profession of religion that admits of worshipping and reverencing 
God in purity, and the only one on which the thoughtful mind 
can repose with undisturbed tranquillity. God is almost forgotten 
in the Christian religion. Every thing, even the creation, is as- 
cribed to the son of Mary. 

In religion, as in every thing else, perfection consists in sim- 
plicity. The Christian religion of Gods within Gods, like wheels 
within wheels, is like a complicated machine, that never goes 
right, and every projector in the art of Christianity is trying to 
-mend it. It is its defects that have caused such a number and 
variety of tinkers to be hammering at it, and still it goes wrong. 
In the visible world no time-keeper can go equally true with the 
sun ; and in like manner, no complicated religion can be equally 
true with the pure and unmixed religion of Deism. 

Had you not offensively glanced at a description of men whom 
you call by a false name, you would not have been troubled nor 
honoured with this address ; neither has the writer of it any de- 
sire or intention to enter into controversy with you. He thinks 
the temporal establishment of your church politically unjust and 
offensively unfair ; but with respect to religion itself, distinct from 
/temporal establishments, he is happy in the enjoyment of his 
own. and he leaves you to make the best you can of yours. 

A MEMBER OF THE DEISTICAL CHURCH. 

* The first chapter of Matthew, relates that Joseph, the betrothed husband of Mary, 
dreamed that an angel told him that his intended bride was with child by the Holy 
Ghost. It is not every husband, whether carpenter or priest, that can be so easily 
satisfied, for lo ! it was a dream. Whether Mary was in a dream when this was done, 
we are not told. It is, however, a comical story. There is no woman living can 
understand it. 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



32S 



TO JOHN MASON, 

^One of the Ministers of the Scotch Presbyterian Church, of New- 
York, with Remarks on his account of the visit he made to the late 
General Hamilton. 



" Come now, let us reason together, milh the Lord." This is 
one of the passages you quoted from your bible, in your conver- 
sation with General Hamilton, as given in your letter, signed 
with your name, and published in the Commercial Advertiser, 
and other New- York papers, and I re-quote the passage to show 
that your Text and your Religion contradict each other. 

It is impossible to reason upon things not comprehensible by 
reason ; and therefore, if you keep to your text, which priests 
seldom do, (for they are generally either above it, or below it, or 
forget it,) you must admit a religion to which reason can apply, 
and this, certainly, is not the Christian religion. 

There is not an article in the Christian religion that is cogniz- 
able by reason. The Deistical article of your religion, the be- 
lief of a God, is no more a Christian article than it is a Mahom- 
etan article. It is an universal article, common to all religions, 
and which is held in greater purity by Turks than by Christians 
but the Deistical church is the only one which holds it in real 
purity ; because that church acknowledges no co-partnership 
with God. It believes in him solely, and knows nothing of Sons, 
married Virgins, nor Ghosts. It holds all these things to be the 
fables of priest-craft. 

Why then do you talk of reason, or refer to it, since your re- 
ligion has nothing to do with reason, nor reason with that. You 
tell people, as you told Hamilton, that' they must have faiUi I 
Faith in what ? You ought to know that before the mind can 
have faith in any thing, it must either know it as a fact, or see 
cause to believe it on the probability of that kind of evidence that 
is cognizable by reason : but your religion is not within either 
of these cases ; for, in the first place, you cannot prove it to be 
fact ; and in the second place, you cannot support it by reason, 
not only because it is not cognizable by reason, but because it is 
contrary to reason. What reason can there be in supposing, or 
believing, that God put himself to death, to satisfy himself, and be 
revenged on the Devil on account of Mam ; for tell the story which 
way you will it comes to this at last. 

As you can make no appeal to reason in support of an unrea- 
sonable religion, you then (and others of your profession) bring 
yourselves off by telling people, they must not believe in reason, 
but in revelation. This is the artifice of habit without reflection. 
It is putting words in the place of things ; for do you not see, that 
when you tell people to believe in revelation, you must first prove 



$24 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



that what you call revelation, is revelation ; and as you cannot 
do this, you put the word which is easily spoken, in the place of 
the thing you cannot prove. You have no more evidence that 
your Gospel is revelation, than the Turks have that their Koran 
is revelation, and the only difference between them and you is, 
that they preach their delusion and you preach yours. 

In your conversation with General Hamilton, you say to him, 
" The simple truths of the Gospel, which require no abstruse in- 
vestigation, but faith in the veracity of God, icho cannot lie, are 
best suited to your present condition." 

If those matters you call " simple truths are what you call 
them, and require no abstruse investigation, they would be -so ob- 
vious that reason would easily comprehend them ; yet the doc- 
trine you preach at other times is, that the mysteries of the Gospel 
are beyond the reach of reason. If your first position be true, 
that they are simple trutlis, priests are unnecessary, for we do not 
want preachers to tell us the sun shines ; and if your second be 
true, the case, as to effect, is the same, for it is vvaste of money 
to pay a man to explain unexplainable things, and loss of time to 
listen to him. That God cannot lie, is no advantage to your argu- 
ment, because it is no proof that priests cannot, or that the bible does 
not. Did not Paul lie when he told the Thessalonians that the 
general resurrection of the dead would be in his life-time, and 
that he should go up alive along with them into the clouds to meet 
the Lord in the air. 1 Thes. chap. 4, v. 17. 

You spoke of what you call, "the precious blood of Christ." 
This savage style of language belongs to the priests of the Chris- 
tian religion. The professors of this religion say they are shock- 
ed at the accounts of human sacrifices of which they read in the 
histories of some countries. Do they not see that their own reli- 
gion is founded on a human sacrifice, the blood of man, of which 
their priests talk like so many butchers. It is no wonder the 
Christian religion has been so bloody in its effects, for it began 
in blood, and many thousands of human sacrifices have since been 
offered on the altar of the Christian religion. 

It is necessary to the character of a religion, as being true, and 
immutable as God himself is, that the evidence of it be equally 
the same through all periods of time and circumstance. This is 
not the case with the Christian religion, nor with that of the Jews 
that preceedecfit, (for there was a time, and that within the know- 
ledge of history, when these religions did not exist) nor is it the 
case with any religion we know of but the religion of Deism. 
In this the evidences are eternal and universal. — " The heavens de- 
clare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handy work, — 
Day unto fay uttereth speech, and night unto, night showeth know- 
ledge."* But all other religions are made to arise from some lo- 

*This Pslam (19) which is a Deistical Pslam, is so much in the manner of some 
Darts of the book of Job, (which is not a book of the Jews, and does not belong to the 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



cal circumstance, and arc introduced by some temporary trifle 
which its partizans call a miracle, but of which there is no proof 
but the story of it. 

The Jewish religion, according to the history of it r began in a 
wilderness, and the Christian religion in a stable. The Jewish 
books tell us of wonders exhibited upon Mount Sinai. It hap- 
pened that nobody lived there to contradict the account. The 
Christian books tells us of a star that hung over the stable at the 
birth of Jesus. There is no star there now, nor any person liv-\ x 
ing that saw it. But all the stars in the heavens bear eternal ev- \ 
idence to the truth of Deism. It did not begin in a stable, nor in j 
a wilderness. It began every where. The theatre of the universe 
is the place of its birth. 

As adoration paid to any being but GOD himself is idolatry, 
the Christian religion by paying adoration to a man, born of a w^- 
man, called Mary, belongs to the idolatrous class of religions, 
consequently the consolation drawn from it is delusion. Between 
you and your rival in communion ceremonies, Dr. Moore of the 
Episcopal church, you have, in order to make yourselves appear 
of some importance, reduced General Hamilton's character to that 
of a feeble minded man, who, in going out of the world wanted a 
passport from a priest. Which of you was first or last applied to 
for this purpose is a matter of no consequence. 

The man, sir, who puts his trust and confidence in God, that 
leads a just and moral life, and endeavours to do good, does not 
trouble himself about priests when his hour of departure comes, 
nor permit priests to trouble themselves about him. They are, in 
general, miscidevous beings, where character, is concerned ; a 
consultation of priests is worse than a consultation of physicians. 

A Member of the Deistical Congregation. 



ON DEISM AND THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE 

The following reflections, written last winter, were occasioned 
by certain expressions in some of the public papers against Deism, 
and the Writings of Thomas Paine on that subject. 

u Great is Dtana of the Ephesians" was the cry of the people 
of Ephesus ;* and the cry of " our holy religion" has been the cry 

bible) that it has the appearance of having been translated into Hebrew from the same 
language in which the book of Job was originally written, and brought by the Jews 
from Chaldea or Persia, when they returned from captivity. The contemplation of 
the heavens made a great part of their religious devotion of the Chaldeans and Per- 
sians, and their religious festivals were regulated by the progress of the sun through 
the 'welve signs of the Zodiac. But the Jews knew nothing about the Heavens, or 
they would not have told the foolish stcry of the sun's standing still upon a hill, and the 
moon in a valley. What could they want the moon for in die day timel 
* Acts, chap. xix. ver. 28. 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



of superstition in some instances, and of hypocrisy in others, from 
that day to this. 

The Brahmin, the follower of Zoroaster, the Jew, the Mahome- 
tan,, the church of Rome, the Greek church, the protestant church, 
split into several hundred contradictory sectaries, preaching in 
some instances, damnation against each other, all cry out, " our 
holy religion." The Calvinist, who damns children of a span long 
to hell to burn for ever for the glory of God, (and this is called 
Christianity) and the universalist, who preaches that all shall be 
saved and none shall be damned, (and this also is called Christi- 
anity) boasts alike of their holy religion and their Christian faith. 
Something more, therefore, is necessary than mere cry and whole- 
sale assertion, and that something is TRUTH ; and as inquiry 
is the road to truth, he that is opposed to inquiry is not a friend 
to truth. 

The God of Truth is not the God of fable ; when, therefore, 
any book is introduced into the world as the word of God, and 
made a ground-work for religion, it ought to be scrutinized more 
than other books to see if it bear evidence of being what it is 
called. Our reverence to God demands that we do this, lest we 
ascribe to God what is .not his, and our duty to ourselves de- 
mands it lest we take fable for fact, and rest our hope ofsalvation 
on a false foundation. It is not our calling a book holy that 
makes it so, any more than our calling a religion holy that en- 
titles it to the name. Inquiry, therefore, is necessary in order 
to arrive at truth. But inquiry must have some principle to 
proceed on, some standard to judge by, superior to human 
authority. 

When we survey the works of creation, the revolutions of the 
planetary system, and the whole ecomomy of what is called na- 
ture, which is no other than the laws the Creator has prescrib- 
ed to matter, we see unerring order and universal harmony 
reigning throughout the whole. No one part contradicts another. 
The sun does not run against the moon, nor the moon against 
the sun, nor the planets against each other. Every thing 
keeps its appointed time and place. This harmony in the works 
of God is so obvious, that the farmer of the field, though he 
cannot calculate eclipses, is as sensible of it as the philosophi- 
cal astronomer. He sees the God of order in every part of 
the visible universe. 

Here, then, is the standard to which every thing must be 
brought that pretends to be the work or word of God, and by this 
standard it must be judged, independently of any thing and every 
thing that man can say or do. His opinion is like a feather in the 
scale compared with the standard that God himself has set up. 

It is, therefore, by this standard, that the Bible, and all other 
books pretending to bethe word of God, (and there are many of 
them in the world) must be judged, and not by the opinions of - 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES* 



327 



men, or the decrees of ecclesiastical councils. These have been 
so contradictory, that they have often rejected in one council 
what they had voted to be the word of God in another ; and ad- 
mitted what had been before rejected. In this state of uncertain- 
ty in which we are, and which is rendered still more uncertain by 
the numerous contradictory sectaries that have sprung up since 
the time of Luther and Calvin, what is man to do ? The an- 
swer is easy. Begin at the root — begin with the Bible itself 
Examine it with the utmost strictness. It is our duty so to do. 
Compare the parts with each other, and the whole with the har- 
monious, magnificent order that reigns throughout the visible 
universe, and the result will be, that if the same almighty wisdom 
that created the universe, dictated also the Bible, the Bible will 
be as harmonious and as magnificent in all its parts, and in the 
whole, as the universe is. But if, instead of this, the parts are 
found to be discordant, contradicting in one place what is said in 
another, (as in 2 Sam. chap. xxiv. ver. 1, and 1 Chron, chap, 
xxi. ver. 1. where the same action is ascribed to God in one 
book and to Satan in the other,) abounding also in idle and ob- 
scene stories, and representing the Almighty as a passionate, 
whimsical Being, continually changing his mind, making and un- 
making his own works as if he did not know w T hat he was about, 
we may take it for certainty that the Creator of the universe is 
not the author of such a book, that it is not the word of God, and 
that to call it so is to dishonour his name. The Quakers, who 
are a people more moral and regular in their conduct than the 
people of other sectaries, and generally allowed so to be, do not 
hold the Bible to be the word of God. They call it a history of 
the timeSy and a bad history it is, and also a history of bad men 
and of bad actions, and abounding with bad examples. 

For several centuries past the dispute has been about doc- 
trines. It is now about fact. Is the Bible the ord of God, or 
is it not ? for until this point is established, no doctrine drawn 
from the Bible can afford real consolation to. man, and he ought 
to be careful he does not mistake delusion for truth. This is a 
case that concerns all men alike. 

There has always existed in Europe, and also in America, since 
its establishments, a numerous description of men, (I do not here 
mean the Quakers) who did not, and do not believe the Bible to 
be the word of God. These men never formed themselves into 
an established society, but are to be found in all the sectaries 
that exist, and are more numerous than any, perhaps equal to all, 
and are daily increasing. From Dens, the Latin word for God, 
they have* been denominated Deists, that is, believers in God. 
It is the most honourable appellation that can be given to man, 
because it is derived immediately from the Deity. It is not an 
artificial name like episcopalian, presbyterian, &c. but is a name of 
sacred signification* and to revile it, is to revile the name of God. 



328 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



Since then there is so much doubt and uncertainty about the 
Bible, some asserting, and others denying it to be the word of 
God, it is best that the whole matter come out. It is necessary, 
for the information of the world, that it should. A better time 
cannot offer than whilst the government, patronizing no one sect 
or opinion in preference to another, protects equally the rights 
of all; and certainly every man must spurn the idea of an ec- 
clesiastical tyranny, engrossing the rights of the press, and hold- 
ing it free only for itself. 

Whilst the terrors of the Church, and the tyranny of the 
State, hung like a pointed sword over Europe, men were com 
manded to believe what the church told them, or go to the stake. 
AH inquiries into the authenticity of the Bible were shut out by 
the inquisition. We ought, therefore, to suspect that a great 
mass of information respecting the Bible, and the introduction of 
it into the world, has been suppressed by the united tyranny of 
Church and State, for the purpose of keeping people in ignorance, 
and which ought to be known. 

The Bible Jias been received by the protestants on the author- 
ity of the Church of Rome, and on no other authority. It is she 
that has said it is the word of God. We do not admit the au- 
thority of that church with respect to its pretended infallibility, 
its manufactured miracles, its setting itself up to forgive sins, its 
amphibious doctrine of transubstantiation, 8lc; and we ought 
to be watchful with respect to any book introduced by her, or 
her ecclesiastical councils, and called by her the Word of God; 
and the more so, because it was by propagating that belief and 
supporting it by fire and faggot, that she kept up her temporal 
power. That the belief of the Bible does no good in the world, 
may be seen by the irregular lives of those, as well priests as 
laymen, who profess to believe it to be the word of God, and the 
moral lives of the Quakers who do not. It abounds with too 
many ill examp > to be made a rule for moral life, and were a 
man to copy after the lives of some of its most celebrated char- 
acters, he would come to the gallows. 

Thomas Paine has written to show that the Bible is not the 
word of God, that the books it contains were not written by the 
persons to whom they are ascribed, that it is an anonymous 
book, and that we have no authority for calling it the word of 
God, or for saying it was written by inspired penmen, since w« 
do not know who the writers were. This is the opinion, not only 
of Thomas Paine, but of thousands and tens of thousands of 
the most respectable characters in the United States and in 
Europe. These men have the same right to their opinions as oth- 
ers have to contrary opinions, and the same right to publish them.* 
Ecclesiastical tyranny is not admissible in the United States 

With respect to morality, the writings of Thomas Paine are 
remarkable for purity and benevolence; and though he often A 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



329 



enlivens them with touches of wit and humour, he never loses 
sight of the real solemnity of his subject. No man's morals, 
either with respect to his Maker, himself, or his neighbour, can 
suffer by the writings of Thomas Paine. 

It is now too late to abuse Deism, especially in a country 
where the press is free, or where free presses can be established. 
It is a religion that has God for its patron and derives its name 
from him. The thoughtful mind of man, wearied with the 
endless contentions of sectaries against sectaries, doctrines 
against doctrines, and priests against priests, finds its repose at 
last in the contemplative belief and worship of one God and the 
practice of morality, for as Pope wisely says, 
* * 
66 He can't be wrong, whose life is in the right." 



OF THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

Addressed to the believers in the booh called the Scriptures. 



The New Testament contains twenty-seven books, of which 
four are called Gospels ; one called the Acts of the Apostles ; 
fourteen called Epistles of Paul ; one of James ; two of Peter ; 
three of John ; one of Jude ; and one called the Revelation. 

None of those books have the appearance of being written by 
the persons whose names they bear, neither do we know who 
the authors were. They come to us on no other authority than 
the church of Rome, which the Protestant Priests, especially 
those of New England, called the Jfltore of Babylon. This 
church appointed sundry councils to be held, to compose creeds 
for the people, and to regulate church affairs. Two of the 
principal of these Councils were that of Nice, and of Laodocia, 
(names of the places where the councils were held) about three 
hundred and fifty years after the time that Jesus is said to have 
lived. Before this time there was no such book as the New 
Testament. But the church could not well go on without hav- 
ing something to show, as the Persians showed the Zendavista, 
revealed, they say, by God to Zoroaster ; the Bramins of India^ 
| the Shaster, revealed, they say, by God to Bruma, and given to 
I him out of a dusky cloud ; the Jews, the books they call the 
! Law of Moses, given they say also out of a cloud on Mount 
j Sinai ; the church set about forming a code for itself out of 
j such materials as it coukl find or pick up. But where they got 
j those materials, in what language they were written, or whose 

I 



S30 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



hand-writing they were, or whether they were originals or copies, 
or on what authority they stood, we know nothing of, nor does 
the New Testament tell us. The church was resolved to have 
a New Testament, and as after the lapse of more than three 
hundred years, no hand-writing could be proved or disproved, 
the church, who like former impostors, had then gotten posses- 
sion of the state, had every thing its own way. It invented 
creeds, such as that called the Apostle's Creed, the Nicean 
Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and out of the loads of rubbish 
that were presented, it voted four to be Gospels, and others to be 
Epistles, as we now find them arr&iged. 

Of those called Gospels above forty were presented, each pre- 
tending to be genuine. Four only were voted in, and entitled, 
The Gospel according to St. Matthew — the Gospel according to 
St. Mark — the Gospel according to St. Luke — the Gospel accord- 
ing to St. John. 

This word according shows that those books have not been 
written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, but according to 
some accounts or traditions, picked up concerning them. The 
word according means agreeing with, and necessarily includes the 
idea of two things, or two persons. We cannot say, The Gos- 
pel written by Matthew according to Matthew ; but we might say, 
the Gospel of some other person, according to what was report- 
ed to have been the opinion of Matthew. Now we do not know 
who those other persons were, nor whether what they wrote ac- 
corded with any thing that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John might 
have said. There is too little evidence, and too much contriv- 
ance, about those books, to merit credit. 

The next book after those called Gospels, is that called the 
Acts of the Apostles. This book is anonymous ; neither do the 
Councils that compiled or contrived the New Testament tell us 
how they came by it. The church, to supply this defect, say it 
was written by Luke, which shows that the church and its priests 
have not compared that called the Gospel according to St. Luke, 
and the Acts together, for the two contradict each other. The 
book of Luke, chap. 24, makes Jesus ascend into heaven the 
very same day that it makes him rise from the grave. The book 
of Acts, chap. i. v. 3, says, that he remained on the earth forty 
days after his crucifixion. There is no believing what either of 
them says. 

The next to the book of Acts is that entitled, " The Epistle 
of Paul the Apostle* to the Romans." This is not an epistle, 
or letter, written by Paur or signed by him. It is an epistle, or 

* According to the criterion of the church, Paul was not an apostle : that appella- 
tion being- given only to those called the twelve. Two sailors belonging to a man of 
war, got into a dispute upon this point, whether Paul was an apostle or not, and they 
agreed to refer it to the Boatswain, who decided very canonically that Paul was an 
acting apostle but not rated 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



331 



letter, written by a person who signs himself Tertius, and sent, 
as it is said at the end, by a servant woman called Phebe. The 
last chapter, v. 22, says, u i Tertius, who wrote this Epistle, sa- 
lute you." Who Tertius or Phebe were, we know nothing of. 
The epistle is not dated. The whole of it is written in the first 
person, and that person is Tertius, not Paul. But it suited the 
church to ascribe it to Paul. There is nothing in it that is in- 
teresting, except it be to contending and wrangling sectaries. — 
The stupid metaphor of the potter and the clay is in the 9th 
chapter. 

The next book is entitled, "The First Epistle of Paul the 
Apostle, to the Corinthians. 55 This, like the former, is not an 
epistle written by Faul, nor signed by him. The conclusion of 
the epistle says, " The first epistle to the Corinthians was writ- 
ten from Philippi, by Stephenas and Fortunatus and Achiacus and 
i Timotheus. 55 The second epistle entitled, " The Second Epis- 
tle of Paul the Apostle, to the Corinthians, 55 is in the same case 
( with the first. The conclusion of it says, " It was written from 
! Philippi, a city of Macedonia, by Titus and Lucas. 55 

A question may arise upon these cases, which is, are these 
persons the writers of the epistles originally, or are they the 
writers and attestors of copies sent to the councils who compiled 
the code or canon of the New Testament ? If the epistles had 
been dated, this question could be decided ; but in either of the 
cases the evidences of Paul 5 s hand writing and of their being 
Written by him is wanting, and therefore there is no authority for 
calling them epistles of Paul. We know not whose epistles they 
were, nor whether they are genuine or forged. 

The next is entitled, " The Epistle of Paul the Apostle, to 
the Galatians. 55 It contains six short chapters. But short as the 
epistle is, it does not carry the appearance of being the work or 
composition of one person. The fifth chapter, ver. 2, says, u If 
ye be circumcised, Christ shall avail you nothing. 55 It does not 
say circumcision shall profit you nothing, but Christ shall profit 
you nothing. Yet in the sixth chap. v. 15, it says, " For in 
Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncir- 
cumcision, but a new creature. 55 These are not reconcileable 
passages, nor can contrivance make them so. The conclusion 
of the epistle says, it was written from Rome, but it is not dated, 
nor is there any signature to it, neither do the compilers of the 
New Testament say how they came by it. We are in the dark 
upon all these matters. 

' The next is entitled, " the Epistle of Paul the Apostle, to the 
; Ephesians. 55 Paul is not the writer. The conclusion of it says, 
| " Written from Rome unjo the Ephesians by Tychicus. 55 

The next is entitled, "the Epistle of Paul the Apostle, to the 
I Philippians. 55 Paul is not the writer. The conclusion of it says, 
i ?* It was written to the Philippians from Rome by Epaphroditus. 55 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



It is not dated. Query, were those men who wrote and signed 
those epistles Journeymen Apostles, who undertook to write in 
Paul's name, as Paul is said to have preached in Christ's name? 

The next is entitled, " the Epistle of Paul the Apostle, to the 
Colossians." Paul is not the writer. Doctor Luke is spoken 
of in this Epistle as sending his compliments. "Luke, the be- 
loved physician and Demas greet you." Chap. iv. v. 14. It 
does not say a word about his writing any Gospel. The conclu- 
sion of the Epistle says, " Written from Rome to the Colossians, i 
by Tychicus and Onesimus." 

The next is entitled " the first and the second Epistles of Paul 
the Apostle, to the Thessalonians." Either the writer of these 
Epistles was a visionary enthusiast, or a direct impostor, for he 
tells the Thessalonians, and, he says, he tells them by the word 
of the Lord, that the world will be at an end in his and their 
time; and after telling them that those who are already dead 
shall rise, he adds, chapter 4, v. 17, £C Then we which are alive 
and remain shall be caught up with them into the clouds to meet 
the Lord in the air, and so shall we be ever with the Lord." 
Such detected lies as these, ought to fill priests with confusion, 
when they preach such books to be the word of God. These 
two Epistles are said, in the conclusion of them, to be written 
from Athens. They are without date or signatures. 

The next four Epistles are private letters. Two of them are 
to Timothy, one to Titus, and one to Philemon. Who they were 
nobody knows. 

The first to Timothy is said to be written from Laodocea. It 
is without date or signature. The second to Timothy is said to 
be written from Rome, and is without date or signature. The 
Epistle to Titus is said to be written from Nicopolis in Macedo- 
nia. It is without date or signature. The Epistle to Philemon 
is said to be written from Rome by Onesimus. It is without 
date. 

The last Epistle ascribed to Paul is entitled, " The Epistle of f 
Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews," and is said in the conclusion 
to be written from Italy, by Timothy. This Timothy (according 
to the conclusion of the Epistle called the second Epistle of 
Paul to Timothy) was bishop of the church of the Ephesians, 
and consequently this is not an Epistle of Paul. 

On what slender cob-web evidence do the priests and profes- : 
sors of the Christian religion hang their faith! The same degree 
of hearsay evidence, and that at third and fourth hand, would 
not in a court of Justice, give a man title to a cottage, and yet 
the priests of this profession presumptuously promise their de- 
luded followers the kingdom of Heaven. A little reflection 
would teach men that those books are not to be trusted to; 
that so far from there being any proof they are the word of God, 
it is unknown who the writers of them were, or at what time 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



333 



they were written, within three hundred years after the reputed 
authors are said to have lived. It is not the interest of priests, 
who get their living by them, to examine into the insufficiency 
of the evidence upon which those books were received by the 
popish councils who compiled the New Testament. 

The cry of the priests, that the Church is in danger, is the cry 
of men who do not understand the interest of their own craft, 
for instead of exciting alarms and apprehensions for its safety, as 
they expect, it excites suspicion that the foundation is not sound, 
and that it is necessary to take down and build it on a surer 
foundation. Nobody fears for the safety of a mountain, but 
a hillock of sand may be washed away!^ Blow then, O ye 
priests, " the Trumpet in Zion," for the Hillock is in danger. 

DETECTOR— P. 



COMMUNICATION. 



The church tells us that the books of the Old and New Testa- 
ment are divine revelation, and without this revelation we could 
not have true ideas of God. 

The Deist, on the contrary, say, that those books are not divine 
I revelation, and that were it not for the light of reason, and the re- 
ligion of Deism, those books, instead of teaching us true ideas of 
God, would teach us not only false but blasphemous ideas of him. 

Deism teaches us that God is a God of truth and justice. Does 
the Bible teach the same doctrine? It does not. 

The Bible says, (Jeremiah, chap. 20, verses 5, 7,) that God is a 
deceiver. i( O Lord (says Jeremiah) thou hast deceived me, and 
I was deceived. Thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed." 

Jeremiah not only upbraids God with deceiving him, but in 
chap. 4, verse 9, he upbraids God with deceiving the people of 
Jerusalem. " Ah! Lord God, (says he,) surely thou hast greatly 
deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ye shall have peace, 
whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul." 

In chap. 15, verse 8, the Bible becomes more impudent, and 
calls God in plain language, a liar. £C Wilt thou, (says Jeremiah 
to God,) be altogether unto me as a liar and as waters that fail." 

Ezekiel, chap. 14, verse 9, makes God to say — 94 If the prophet 
be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord hath deceived 
that prophet." All this is downright blasphemy. 

The prophet Micaiah, as he is called, % Chron. chap. 18, verse 
j 18, tells another blasphemous story of God. — " I saw, says he, the 
! Lord sitting on his throne, and all the hosts of heaven standing on 
j his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, who shall en- 
j tice Ahab, king of Israel, to go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? 
I And one spoke after this manner, and another after that manner 



334 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



Then there came out a spirit (Micaiah does not tell us where he 
came from) and stood before the Lord, (what an impudent fellow 
this spirit was,) and said, I will entice him. And the Lord said 
unto him, wherewith? and he said, I will go out and be a lying 
spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the Lord said thou 
shalt entice him, and thou shalt also prevail; go out and do even so. 

We often hear of a gang of thieves plotting to rob and murder 
a man, and laying a plan to entice him out that they may execute 
their design, and we always feel shocked at the wickedness of 
such wretches ; but what must we think of a book that des- 
cribes the Almighty acting in the same manner, and laying plans 
in heaven to entrap and ruin mankind. Our ideas of his justice 
and goodness forbid us to believe such stories, and, therefore, we 
say that a lying spirit has been in the mouth of the writers 'of the 
books of the Bible T. P. 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE PROSPECT. 

In addition to the judicious remarks in your 12th number^ on 
the absurJ story of Noah's flood, in the 7th chapter of Genesis, 
I send you the following : 

The 2d verse makes God to say unto Noah, u Of every clean 
beast thou, shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female, 
and of every beast that are not clean, by two, the male and his 
female." 

Now, there was no such thing as beasts clean and unclean in 
the time of Noah. Neither were there any such people as Jews 
or Israelites at that time, to whom that distinction was a law. 
The law, called the law of Moses, by which a distinction is made, 
beasts clean and unclean, was not until several hundred years 
after the time that Noah is said to have lived. The story, there- 
fore, detects itself, because the inventor forgot himself, by making 
God make use of an expression that could not be used at the 
time. The blunder is of the same kind, as if a man in telling a 
story about America, a hundred years ago, should quote an ex- 
pression from Mr. Jefferson's inaugural speech, as if spoken by 
him at that time. 

My opinion of this story is the same as what a man once said 
to another, who asked him in a drawling tone of voice, " Do you 
believe the account about No-ah ?" The other replied in the 
same tone of voice, ah~no* T. P, 




MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



335 



RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.* 



The following publication, which has appeared in several news- 
papers in different parts of the United States, shows in the 
most striking manner, the character and effects of religious fa- 
naticism, and to what extravagant lengths it will carry its un- 
ruly and destructive operations. We give it a place in the 
Prospect, because we think the perusal of it will be gratifying 
to our subscribers ; and, because, by exposing the true charac- 
ter of such frantic zeal, we hope to produce some influence 
upon the reason of man, and induce him to rise superior to 
such dreadful illusions. The judicious remarks at the end of 
this account were communicated to us by a very intelligent 
and faithful friend to the cause of Deism. 

Extract from a Letter of the Rev. George Scott, of Mill Creek, 
Washington County, Pennsylvania, to Col. William M'Farren, 
of Mount Bethel, Northampton County, P. dated November 3, 
1802. 

My Dear Friend, 

We have wonderful times here. God has been pleased to 
visit this barren corner with abundance of his grace. The work 
began in a neighbouring congregation, at a sacramental occa- 
sion, about the last of September. It did not make its appear- 
ance in my congregation till the first Tuesday of October. Af- 
ter society in the night, there appeared an evident stir among 
the young people, but nothing of the appearance of what appear- 
ed afterwards. On Saturday evening following, we had society, 
but it was dull throughout. On Sabbath-day one cried out, but 
nothing else extraordinary appeared. — That evening I went part 
of the way to the Raccoon congregation, when the sacrament of 
the supper was administered ; but on Monday morning a very 
strong impression of duty constrained me to return to my con- 
gregation in the Flats, when the work was begun. We met in the 
afternoon at the meeting-house, where we had a warm society. 
In the eveniSg we removed to a neighbouring house, where wc 
continued in society till midnight ; numbers were falling all the 

* It oecomes necessary to insert Mr. Scott's letter, for the due understanding of the 
comments made upon it, Mr. Paine. It has also in itself much interest, as exhib- 
iting a true picture of the awful condition in which priestcraft has involved human na- 
ture, by inculcating " the doctrines of our fallen state by nature, and the way of re- 
covering through Christ." A more childish and besotted dogma, I will venture to 
say, was never taught in the most barbarous nation that ever existed in the world , 



Editor. 



336 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



time of the society. — After the people were dismissed, a consid- 
erable number staid and sung hymns, till perhaps two o'clock in 
the morning, when the work began to the astonishment of all. 
Only five or six were left able to take care of the rest, to the 
number perhaps of near forty. — They fell in all directions, on ben- 
ches, on beds, and on the floor. Next morning the people began 
to flock in from all quarters. One girl came early in the morn- 
ing, but did not get within one hundred yards of the house, be- 
fore she fell powerless, and was carried in. We could not leave 
the house, and, therefore, continued society all that day and all 
that night, and on Wendesday morning, I was obliged to leave 
a number of them on the spot. On Thursday evening we met 
again, when the work was amazing ; about twenty persons lay 
to all appearance dead for near two and a half hours, and a great 
number cried out with sore distress. — Friday, I preached at Mill 
Creek. Here nothing appeared more than an unusual solemnity. 
That evening we had society, where great numbers were brought 
under conviction, but none fell. On Sabbath-day I preached at 
Mill Creek. This day and evening was a very solemn time, but 
none fell. On Monday I went to attend presbytery, but return- 
ed on Thursday evening to the Flats, where society was appoint- 
ed, when numbers were struck down. On Saturday evening 
we had society, and a very solemn time — about a dozen persons 
lay dead three and a half hours by the watch. Oa Sabbath a 
number fell, and we were obliged to continue all night in society, 
as we had done* every evening we had met before. On Monday, 
a Mr. Hughes preached at Mill Creek, but nothing extraordinary 
appeared, only a great deal of falling. We concluded to divide 
that evening into two societies, in order to accommodate the peo- 
ple. Mr. H. attended the one and I the other. Nothing strange 
appeared where Mr. H. attended ; but where I attende-d, God 
was present in the most wonderful manner. I believe there was 
not one present but was more or less affected. A considerable 
number fell powerless, and two or three, after laying some time, 
recovered with joy, and spoke near half an hour. On&, es- 
pecially, declared in a surprising manner the wonderful view she 
had of the person, character, and offices of Christ, with such ac- 
curacy of language, that I was astonished to hear it. Surely 
this must be the work of God ! On Thursday evening we had ! 
a lively society, but not much falling down. On Saturday, we : 
all went to the Cross Roads, and attended a sacrament. Here 
were, perhaps, about 4000 people collected. The weather was 
uncomfortable ; on the Sabbath-day it rained, and on Monday it •« 
snowed. We had thirteen ministers present. The exercises [ 
began on Saturday, and continued on night and day with little or 
no intermission. Great numbers fell ; to speak within bounds, 
there were upwards of 150 down at one time, and some of them 
continued three or fours with but little appearance jaf life. Num- i 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES 



837 



bers came to, rejoicing, while others were deeply distressed. — 
The scene was wonderful ; the cries of the distressed,' and the 
agonizing groans, gave some faint representation of the awful 
cries and the bitter screams, which will, no doubt, be extorted 
from the damned in hell. But what is to me the most surprising, 
of those who have been subjects among my people with whom I 
have conversed, but three had any terrors of hell during their 
exercise. The principal cry is, O how long have I rejected 
Christ ! O how often have I embrued my hands in his precious 
blood ! 0 how often have I waded through his precious blood by 
stifling conviction ! 0 this dreadfuHiard heart ! O what a dread- 
ful monster sin is ! It was my sin that nailed Jesus to the 
cross, &c. 

The preaching is various ; some thunder the terrors of the law 
— others preach the mild invitation of the gospel. For my part, 
since the work began, I have confined myself chiefly to the doctrines 
of our fallen state by nature, and the way of recovery through 
Christ ; opening the way of salvation : showing how God can 
be just and yet be the justifier of them that believe, and also the 
nature of true faith and repentance ; pointing out the difference 
between true and false religion, and urging the invitations of the 
gospel in the most engaging manner that I am master of, without 
any strokes of terror. The convictions and cries appear to be, 
perhaps, nearly equal under all these different modes of preach- 
ing, but it appears rather most, when we preach on the fulness 
and freeness of salvation. 



REMARKS BY MR. PAINE. 



In the fifth chapter of Mark, we read a strange story of the 
Devil getting into swine after he had been turned out of a man, 
and as the freaks of the Devil in that story and the tumble-down 
descriptions in this are very much alike ; the two stories ought to 
go together. 

"And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the 
country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out of the 
ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an 
unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs ; and no 
man could bind him, no, not with chains : because that he had 
been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been 
i plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces ; neither 
| could any man tame him. And always ni^ht and day, he was in 
I the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with 
! stones. But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



him, and cried with a loud voice, and said, what have I to do with 
thee, Jesus, thou son of the most high God ? I adjure thee by God, 
that thou torment me not. (For he said unto him, come out of 
the man, tfwu unclean spirit.) And he asked him, what is thy 
name? and he answered, saying, my name is Legion : for we are 
many. And he besought him much that he would not send them 
away out of the country. Now there was there, nigh unto the 
mountains, a great herd of swine feeding. And all the devils be- 
sought him, saying, send us into the swine, that we may enter in- 
to them. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the un- 
clean spirits w r ent out, and entered into the swine ; and the herd 
ran down a violently steep place into the sea, (they were about 
two thousand,) and were choked in the sea." 

The force of the imagination is capable of producing strange ef- 
fects. — When animal magnetism began in France, which was 
while Doctor Franklin was minister to that country, the wonder- 
ful accounts given of the wonderful effects it produced on the 
persons who were under the operation, exceeded any thing related 
in the foregoing letter from Washington County. They tumbled 
down, fell into trances, roared and rolled about like persons sup- 
posed to be bewitched. The government, in order to ascertain 
the fact, or detect the imposition, appointed a committee of physi- 
cians to inquire into the case, and Doctor Franklin was request- 
ed to accompany them, which he did. 

The committee went to the operator's house, and the persona 
on whom an operation was to be performed were assembled. 
They were placed in the position in which they had been when 
under former operations, and blind-folded. In a little time they 
began to show signs of agitation, and in the space of about two 
hours they went through all the frantic airs they had shown be- 
fore ; but the case was, that no operation was performing upon 
them, neither was the operator in the room, for he had been order- 
ed out of it by the physicians ; but as the persons did not know 
this, they supposed him present and operating upon them. It 
was the effect of imagination only. Doctor Franklin, in relating 
this account to the writer of this article, said, that he thought the 
government might as well have let it gone on, for that as imagin- 
ation sometimes produced disorders, it might also cure some. It 
is fortunate, however, that this falling down and crying out scene did 
not happen in New England a century ago, for if it had the 
preachers would have been hung for witchcraft, and in more an- 
cient times the poor falling down folks would have been supposed 
to be possessed of a devil, like the man in Mark, among the 
tembs. The progress that reason and Deism make in the world, 
U 'sen the force of superstition, and abate the spirit of persecution. 

END OF THE THEOLOGICAL WORKS. 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



339 



THE STRANGE STORY OF 

KORAH, DATHAN, AND ABIRAM. 

Numbers, chap. xvi. accounted for 



Old ballads sing of Chevey-Chace, 
Beneath whose rueful shade, 

Full many a valiant m n was slain, 
And manv a widow made 

But I will tell of one much worse 
That happ'd in days of yore ; 

All in the barren wilderness, 
Beside the Jordan shore. , 

Where Moses led the children forth, 
CallM chosen tribes of God, 

And fed them forty years with quails, 
And ruled them with a rod. 

A dreadful fray once rose among 
These self-named tribes of I am ; 

Where Korah fell, and by his side 
Fell Dathan and Abiram. 

An earthquake swallowed thousands up, 
And fire carne down like stones, 

Which slew their sons and daughters all, 
Their wives and little ones. 

'Twas ail about old Aaron's tythes 
This murdering quarrel rose ; 
w For tythes are worldly things of old, 
That lead from words to blows. 

A Jew of Venice has explained, 
In the language of his nation, 

The manner how this fray began, 
Of which here is translation. 

There was a widow old and poor, 
Who scarce herself could keep ; 

Her stock of goods was very small. 
Her flocks one single sheep. 



340 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES, 



And when her time of shearing came, 
She counted much her gains ; 

For now, said she, I shajl be blest 
With plenty for my pains. 

When Aaron beard the sheep was shear'd 

And gave a good increase, 
He straightway sent his tything man 

And took away the fleece. 

At this the weeping widow Wen* 

To Korah to complain, 
And Korah he to Aaron went' 

In order to exolain. 

But Aaron said in such a case, 

There can be no forbearing, 
The law ordains that thou shalt give 

The first fleece of thy shearing. 

When lambing time was come about, 

This sheep became a dam ; 
And bless'd the widow,s mournful heart, 

By bringing forth a lamb. 

When Aaron heard the sheep had young, 

He staid till it was grown, 
Then he sent his tything man, 

And took it for his own. 

Again the weeping widow went 

To Korah with her grief, 
But Aaron said, in such a case, 

There could be no relief, 

For in the holy law tis writ, 

That whilst thou keep'st the stock, 

Thou shalt present unto the Lord 
The firstling of thy flock. 

The widow then in deep distress, 

And having nought to eat, 
Against her will she killed the sheep, 

To feed uoon the meat. 

When Aaron heard the sheep was kiliea, 

He sent and took a limb ; 
Which by the holy law he said 

Pertained unto him ; 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



For in the holy law 'tis writ, * 
That when thou kill'st a beast, 

Thou shalt a shoulder and a breast 
Present unto the priest. 

The widow then worn out with grief, 
Sat down to mourn and weep ; 

And in a fit of passion said, 
The devil take the sheep. 

Then Aaron took the whole away, 
And said the laws record, 

That all and each devoted thing 
Belongs unto the Lord. 

The widow went among her kin, 
The tribes of Israel rose ; 

And all the widows, young and old, 
Pull'd Aaron by the nose. 

But Aaron called an earthquake up, 
And fire from out the sky ; 

And all the consolation is — 
The Bible tells a lie. 



THE TALE OF THE MONK AND JEW, 

VERSIFIED* 



An unbelieving Jew one day 
Was skating o'er the icy way, 
Which being brittle let him in, 
Just deep enough to catch his chin ; 
And in that woful plight he hung, 
Witk only power to move his tongue. 

A brother skater near at hand, 
A Papist, born in foreign land, 
With hasty strokes directly flew 
To save poor Mordecai the Jew — 
But first, quoth he, I must enjoin 
That you renounce your faith for mine } 
There's no entreaties else will do, 
'Tis heresy to help a Jew 



342 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES 



" Forswear mine fait ! No ! Cot forbid 
Dat would be fery base indeed, 
Come never mind such tings as deeze, 
Tink, tink, how fery hard it freeze. 
More coot you do, more coot you be, 
Vat signifies your fait to me. 
Come tink agen, how cold and vet, 
And help me out von little bit." 

By holy mass, 'tis hard, I own, 
To see a man both hang and drown, 
And can't relieve him from his plight 
Because he is an Israelite ; 
The church refuses all assistance, 
Beyond a certain pale and distance ; 
And all the service I can lend, 
Is praying for your soul, my friend. 

" Pray for mine soul, ha! ha! you make me laugh, 
You petter help me out py half : 
Mine soul I farrant vill take care, 
To pray for nown self, my tear ; 
So tink a little now for me, 
'Tis I am in de hole, not she." 

The church forbids it, friend, and saith 
That all shall die Avho have no faith. 
" Veil ! if I must pelieve, I must, 
But help me out von litttle first." 

No, not an inch without Amen, 
That seals the whole — " Veil, hear me den 
I here renounce for coot and all, 
De race of Jews both great and small ; 
'Tis the varst trade peneath the sun, 
Or varst religion ; dat's all von. 
Dey cheat, and get deir living py't, 
And lie, and swear de lie is right. 
I'll co to mass as soon as ever 
I get to toder side de river. 
So help me out, dow Christian friend, 
Dat I may do as I intend ." 

Perhaps you do intend to cheat, 
If once you get upon your feet. 

" No, no, I do intend to be 
A Chi*istian, such a one as cfce." 
For, thought the Jew, he is as much 
A Christian man as I am such. 

The bigot Papist joyful hearted 
To hear the heretic converted, 
Replied to the- designing Jew, 
This was a happy fall for vou : 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES, 843 

You'd better die a Christian now, 
For if you live you'll break your vow. 
Then said no more, but in a trice 
Popp'd Mordecai beneath the ice. 



SONG. 

THE FOURTH OF JULY. 

Tune- — u Rule Brittannia " 



Hail great Republic of the world, 

The rising empire of the west ; 

Where fam'd Columbus' mighty mind inspired. 

Gave tortured Europe scenes of rest ! 

CHORUS. 

Be thou for ever great, for ever great and free, 
The land of love and liberty. 

Beneath thy spreading mantle vine, 
Besides thy flow'ry groves and springs, 
And on thy lofty, thy lofty mountains' brow, 
May all thy sons and fair ones sing, 

Be thou for ever great, &.c. 

From thee may hated Discord fly, 

With all her dark and dreary train ; 

And whilst thy mighty, thy mighty waters roll, 

May heart endearing concord reign, 

Be thou for ever great, &c, 

Far as the vast Atlantic pours 

Its loaded waves to human sight, 

There may thy starry, thy starry standard shine. 

The constellation of thy rights. 

Be thou for ever great, &c 

Let laureats sing their birth-day odes, 
Or how that death, like thunders, hurl'd ; 
'Tis ours the charter, the charter ours alone 
To sing the birth-day of a world. 

Be thou for ever great, &c 



344 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES 

May ages, as they rise, proclaim 

The glories of thy natal day ; 

And restless Europe, from thy example learn 

To live, to rule, and to obey.. 

Be thou for ever great, 



Mr. Pame corresponded with a lady, and dated his letters from 
a The Castle in Air," while she addressed hers from "The Little 
Corner of the World." For reasons which he knew not, their in- 
tercourse was suddenly suspended, and for some time he believed 
his fair friend in obscurity and distress. Many years afterwards, 
however, he met her unexpectedly at Paris in the most affluent 
circumstances, and married to Sir Robert Smith. The following 
is a copy of one of these poetical effusions. 



FROM THE CASTLE IN AIR, 

TO 

THE LITTLE CORNER OF THE WORLD. 



In the region of clouds where the whirlwinds arise,* 

My castle of fancy was built : 
The turrets reflected the blue of the skies, 

And the windows with sun-beams were gilt. 

The rainbow sometimes in its beautiful state, 

Enamell'd the mansion around, 
And the figures that fancy in clouds can create, 

Suoplied me with gardens and ground. 

I had grottos and fountains, and orange tree groves, 

I had all that enchantment has told ; 
I had sweet shady walks for the gods and their loves, 

I had mountains of coral and gold. 

But a storm that I felt not, had risen and roll'd, 

While rapt in a slumber I lay : 
And when I looked out in the morning, behold! 

My castle was carried away. 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



It pass'd over rivers, and v allies, and groves : — 

The world it was all in my view — 
I thought of my friends, of their fates, of their loves, 

And often, full often of you. 

At length it came over a beautiful scene,. 

That nature and silence had made : 
The place was but small — but 'twas sweetly serene, 

And chequered with sun-shine and shade. 

I gaz'd and I envied with painful good will, 
And grew tired of my seat in the air : 

When all of a sudden my castle stood still, 
As if some attraction was there. 

Like a lark from the sky it came fluttering down, 

And placed me exactly in view^- 
When who should I meet in this charming retreat 

This corner of calmness— but you. 

Delighted to find you in honour and ease, 

I felt no more sorrow nor pain ; 
And the wind coming fair, I ascended the breeze 

And went back with my castle again. 



SONG 

ON THE DEATH OF 



GENERAL WOLFE. 



In a mouldering cave, where the wretched retreat, 

Britannia sat wasted with care ; 
She mourn'd for her Wolfe, and exclaimed against fate, 

And gave herself up to despair. ' 
The walls of her cell she had sculptured around 

With the feats of her favourite son, 
And even the dust, as it luy on the ground, 

Was engraved with some deeds he had done. 

The sire of the gods, from his chrystalline throne, 

Beheld the disconsolate dame, 
And, moved with her tears, he sent Mercury down, 

And these were the tidings that came : 



346 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



Britannia, forbear, not a sigh, or a tear, 
For thy Wolfe, so deservedly loved ; 

Your tears shall be changed into triumphs of joy, 
For thy Wolfe is not dead but removed. 

The sons of the east, the proud giants of old, 

Have crept from their darksome abodes, 
And this is the news, as in heaven it was told, 

They were marching to war with the gods. 
A council was held in the chambers of Jove, 

And this was their final decree, 
That Wolfe should be -calPd to the armies above, 

And the charge was entrusted to me. 

To the plains of Quebec with the orders 1 flew, 

He begg'd for a moment's delay ; 
He cry'd, " Oh forbear, let me victory hear, 

" And then thy commands I'll obey." 
With a darksome thick film I encompassed his eyes, 

And bore him away in an urn ; 
Lest the fondness he bore to his own native shore 

Should induce him again to return. 



LIBERTY TREE. 



Tune—" The Gods of the Greeks " 



In a chariot of light, from the regions of day, 

The goddess of liberty came, 
Ten thousand celestials directed the way, 

And hither conducted the dame. 
A fair budding branch from the garden above, 

Where millions with millions agree, 
She brought in her hand, as a pledge of her love, 

And the plant she named Liberty tree. 

The celestial exotic struck deep in the ground, 
Like a native it flourish'd and bore : 

The fame of its fruit drew the nations around, 
To seek out this peaceable shore 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



Unmindful of names or distinction they came, 

For freemen like brothers agree ; 
With one spirit endued, they one friendship pursued,. 

And their temple was Liberty tree. 

in. 

Beneath this fair tree, like the patriarchs of old, 

Their bread in contentment they ate, 
Unvex'd with the troubles of silver or gold, 

The cares of the grand and the great. 
With timber and tar they Old England supplied, 

And supported her pow'r on the sea : 
Her battles they fought, without getting a groat, 

For the honour of Liberty tree 

iv. 

But hear, O ye swains ('tis a tale most profane,^ 

How all the tyrannical pow'rs, 
King, Commons, and Lords, are uniting amain, 

To cut down this guardian of ours. 
From the east to the west blow the trumpet to arms, 

Through the land let the sound of it flee ; 
Let the far and the near, all unite with a cheer, 

In defence of our Liberty tree. 



S48 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



EPITAPH 

FOR THE TOMB OF 

THOMAS PAUSE. 

WRITTEN BY A FRIEND. 



Here moulders in this dusk abode, 
One who to faith no homage showM : 
By moral law his life he tried, 
While social duty was his guide, 
And pure philanthropy the end 
Of all he did or could intend. 

Prayer he pronounced impiety, 
Vain prompter of divine decree : 
That oft implores, with erring zeal, 
For boons subversive of its weal : 
Yet he retained a grateful sense, , 
Of bountiful omnipotence ; 
Nor blushed with reverence to own, 
That blessing sprang from God alone. 

Thus unappaird, he sunk to rest, 
To rise or lie as heaven thought best : 
Yet future hope he did not wave, 
Nor mercy for transgressions crave, 
The God who gave him life will save.* 

•Thomas Paine was born atTLetford. in England, on the 29th day of January, 
1737, and died at New- York, on the 8th of June, 1S09, aged a Uttle over seventy-two 

years and four months. 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



349 



THE WILL OF THOMAS PAINE. 



The last Will and Testament of me, the subscriber, Thomas 
Paine, reposing confidence in my Creator God, and in no other 
being, for I know of no other, nor believe in any other. I 
Thomas Paine, of the State of New- York, author cf the work 
entitled Common Sense, written in Philadelphia, in 1775, and 
published in that city the beginning of January, 1776, which 
Ciwoke America to a declaration of Independence on the fourth 
of July following, which was as fast as the work could spread 
through such an extensive country ; author also of the several 
numbers of the American Crisis, thirteen in all ; published occa- 
sionally during the progress of the revolutionary war — the last 
is on the peace ; author also of Rights of Man, parts the first 
and second, written and published in London, in 1791 and 1792 ; 
author also of a work on religion, Age of m Reason, part the first 
and second. N. B. I have a third part by me in manuscript, 
and an answer to the hishop of LlandafF ; author also of a work, 
lately published, entitled Examination of the Passages in the New 
Testament, Quoted from the Old, and called Propheciesconcerning 
Jesus Christ, and shelving there are no Prophecies of any such 
Person ; author also of several other works not here enumerated, 
Dissertation on the First Principles of Government, — Decline and 
Fall of the English System of Finance — Agrarian Justice, &c. &c. 
make this my last Will and Testament, that is to say : I give 
and bequeath to my executors hereinafter appointed, Walter 
Morton and Thomas Addis Emmet, thirty shares I hold in the 
New- York Phoenix Insurance Company, which cost me fourteen 
hundred and seventy dolllars, they are worth now upwards of 
fifteen hundred dollars, and all my moveable effects, and also 
the money that may be in my trunk or elsewhere at the time of 
my decease, paying thereout the expenses of my funeral, in 
trust as to the said shares, moveables, and money for Margaret 
Brazier Bonneville, of Paris, for her own sole and separate use, 
and at her own disposal, notwithstanding her coverture. As to 
my farm in New Rochelle, I give, devise, and bequeath the same 
to my said executors, Walter Morton and Thomas Addis Em- 
met, and to the survivor of them, his heirs and assigns forever, in 
trust nevertheless, to sell and dispose thereof, now in the occu- 
pation of Andrew A. Dean, beginning at the west end of the 
orchard, and rawing in Oi line with the land sold t<* 



350 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



Coles, to the end of the farm, and to apply the money arising 
from such sale as hereinafter directed. I give to my friends 
Walter Morton, of the New York Phoenix Insurance Company, 
and Thomas Addis Emmet, Counsellor at Law, late of Ireland, 
two hundred dollars each, and one hundred dollars to Mrs. Palm- 
er, widow of Elihu Palmer, late of New-York, to be paid out 
of the money arising from said sale ; and I give the remainder 
of the money arising from that sale, one half thereof to Clio 
Rickman, of High or Upper Mary-le-Bone Street, London, and 
the other half to Nicholas Bonneville of Paris, husband of 
Margaret B. Bonneville, aforesaid : and as to the south part of 
the said farm, containing upwards of one hundred acres, in trust 
to rent out the same or otherwise put it to profit, as shall be 
found most adviseable, and to pay the rents and profits thereof to 
the said Margaret B. Bonneville, in trust for her children, Ben- 
jamin Bonneville t and Thomas Bonneville their education and 
maintenance, until they come to the age of twenty-one years, in 
order that she may bring them well up, give them good and use- 
ful learning, and instruct them in their duty to God, and the 
practice of morality, the rent of the land, or the interest of the 
money for which it may be sold, as hereinafter mentioned, to be 
employed in their education. And after the youngest of the said • 
children shall have arrived at the age of twenty-one years, in 
further trust to convey the same to the said children, share and 
share alike, in fee simple. But if it shall be thought advisable 
by my executors and executrix, or the survivor or survivors of 
them, at any time before the youngest of the said children shall 
come of age, to sell and dispose of the said south side of the said 
farm, in that case I hereby authorize and empower my said ex- 
ecutors to sell and dispose of the same, and I direct that the 
money arising from such sale be put into stock, either in the 
United States Bank stock, or New York Phoenix Insurance 
Company stock, the interest or dividends thereof to be applied as 
is already directed for the education and maintenance of the said 
children, and the principal to be transferred to the said children, 
or the survivor of them, on his or their coming of age. I know 
not if the society of people called Quakers admit a person to be 
buried in their burying ground, who does not belong to their 
society, but if they do, or will admit me, I would prefer being 
buried there : my father belonged to that profession, and I was 
partly brought up in it. But, if it is not consistent with their 
rules to do this, I desire to be buried on my farm at New Ro- 
chelle. The place where I am to be buried, to be a square of 
twelve feet, to be enclosed with rows of trees, and a stone or 
post and rail fence, with a head stone with my name and age 
ong raved upon it, author of Cmmon sense. I nominate, consti- 
tute and appoint Walter Mo. ton, of the New York Phoenix 
Insurance Company, and Thomas Addis Emmet, counsellor at 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES Sbi 

I law, late of Ireland, and Margaret B, Bonneville, executors and 
executrix to this my last Will and Testament, requesting them 
the said Walter Morton and Thomas Addis Emmet, that they 
will give what assistance they conveniently can to Mrs. Bonne- 
ville, and see that the children be well brought up. Thus plac- 
ing confidence in their friendship, I herewith take my final leave 
of them and of the world. I have lived an honest and useful 
life to mankind ; my time has been spent in doing good, and I 
die in perfect composure and resignation to the will of my Crea- 
tor God. Dated this eighteenth day of January, in the >ear one 
thousand eight hundred and nine ; and I have also signed my 
name to the other sheet of this Will in testimony of its being a 
part thereof. 

THOMAS PAINE. [L. S J 



kill 

: !l 



<3 

i 



PROFESSION OF FAITH 

OF 

A SAVOYARD VICAR! 

EXTRACTED FROM EMILIUS ; OR, A TREATISE OF EDUCATION, 
By J. J. ROUSSEAU. 

The author introduces the principles and opinions of the Sa- 
voyard Vicar with the following preliminary remarks : 

I foresee how much my readers will be surprised to find I have 
attended my pupil throughout the whole first age of life, without 
once speaking to him of religion. He hardly knows at fifteen 
years of age whether or not he has a soul, and perhaps it will 
not be time to inform him of it when he is eighteen ; for, if he 
learns it too soon, he runs a risk of never knowing it at all. 

If I were to design a picture of the most deplorable stupidity, 
I would draw a pedant teaching children their catechism : and 
were I resolved to crack the brain of a child, I would oblige hrm 
to explain what he said when he repeated his catechism. It may 
be objected, that the greater part of the dogmas of Christianity 
being mysterious, to expect the human mind should be capable 
of conceiving them, is not so much to expect children should be 
men, but that man should be something more. To this I an- 
swer, in the first place, that there are mysteries, which it is not 
only impossible for man to comprehend, but also to believe ; and 
I do not see what we get by teaching them to children, unless it 
be to learn them betimes to tell lies. I will say farther, that be- 
fore we admit of mysteries, it is necessary for us to comprehend, 
at least, that they are incomprehensible, and children are not 
even capable of this. At an age when every thing i? mysteri- 
ous, there are no such things properly speaking, as mysteries. 

Believe in God, and thou shalt be saved. This dogma, misun- 
derstood, is the principle of sanguinary persecution, and the 
cause of all those futile instructions which have given a mortal 

! blow to human reason, by accustoming it to be satisfied with 

I words. 

To impose an obligation of believing, supposes the possibility 
! of it. But though a child should profess the Christian religion, 
what can he believe ? He can believe only what he conceives, 



354 



PROFESSION OF FAITH OF 



and he conceives so little of what is said to him, that if you tell 
him directly the contrary, he adopts the latter dogma as readily 
as he did the former. The faith of children, and indeed of many 
grown persons, is merely an affair of geography. Are they to 
be rewarded in heaven, because they were born at Rome, and 
not at Mecca ? One man is told that Mahomet was a prophet 
sent by God, and he accordingly says that Mahomet was a proph- 
et sent by God ; the other is told that Mahomet was an impos- 
tor, and he also in like manner says Mahomet was an impostor. 
Had these two persons only changed places, each would also 
have changed his tone, and affirmed what he now denies. Can 
we infer from two dispositions so much alike, that one will go to 
heaven, and the other to hell ? When a child says he believes 
in God, it is not in God he believes, but in Peter or James, who 
tells him there is something which is called God : he believes in 
the manner of Euripides, when Jupiter was thus addressed in 
one of his tragedies ;* 

O Jupiter! Though nothing I know of thee but thy name, 

All the difference that I see here between me and my readers 
is that you think children of seven years of age capacitated to 
believe in God, and I do not think them capable of it even at fif- 
teen. Whether I am right or wrong in this particular, it is not 
in itself an article :>f faith, but only a simple observation in nat- 
ural history. 

Let us beware of divulging the truth to those who are incapa- 
ble of understanding it : for this is the way to substitute error in 
the room of it. It were better to have no idea of God at all, 
than to entertain those which are mean, fantastical, injurious, and 
unworthy a divine object ; it is a less crime to be ignorant of, 
than insult him. I had much rather says the amiable Plutarch, 
that people should believe there is no such person as Plutarch in 
the world, than that they should sav, he is unjust, envious, jeal- 
ous, and jo tyrannical as to require of others what he has not 
left them power to perfo~ir\ 

The great evil of those preposterous images of the Deity, 
which we may trace in the minds of children, is, that they remain 
indelible during their whole life ; and that when they afe men, 
they have no better conceptions of God than they had when they 
were children. Custom and prejudice triumph particularly in 
matters of religion. But how shall we, who on all occasions 
pretend to shake off its yoke 5 we, who pay no regard to the au* 
thority of opinion ; who would teach our pupil nothing tut what 
he might have learned himself, in any country ; in what religion 
shall we educate Emilius ? To what sect shall we unite the man 

* The tragedy of Menalippus, which at first be^an with this line ; but the clamours 
of tbe-Athenians obliged Euripides afterwards to alter it. — Plutarch. 



A SAVOYARD VICAR. 355 

# 

©f nature ? The answer appears to me very simple ; we shall 
unite him neither to one nor another ; but place him in a proper 
situation, and qualify him to make choice of that which the best 
use of his reason may induce him to adopt. 

Jncedo per igncs 
Suppo&itos cineri doloso.* 
No matter ; my zeal and sincerity have hitherto stood me in the 
stead of prudence. I hope these, my securities, will not forsake 
me in necessity. Fear not, readers, that I shall take any pre- 
cautions unworthy a friend to truth ; I shall never lose sight of 
my motto ; but certainly I may be permitted to distrust my own 
judgment. Instead of telling you what I think myself, I will 
give you the sentiments of a man of greater weight than I am. 
I answer for the veracity of the facts which are here related; 
they really happened to the autnor of the paper I am going to 
transcribe. It is your business to see if any useful reflections 
may be drawn from it relative to the subject of which it treats. I 
neither propose the sentiments of myself or another, as a rule 
for you, but only submit them to your examination. 

About thirty years ago, a young man, who had forsaken his 
own country, and .rambled into Italy, found himself reduced to 
circumstances of great poverty and distress. He had been bred 
a Calvinist ; but, in consequence of his misconduct, and of be- 
ing unhappily a fugitive in a foreign country, without money or 
friends, he was induced to change his religion for the sake of 
subsistence. To this end he procured admittance into an house 
established for the reception of proselytes. Here, the instruc- 
tions he received concerning some controversial points, excited 
doubts he had not before entertained, and brought him first ac- 
quainted with the evil of the step he had taken. He was taught 
strange dogmas, and was eye-witness to stranger manners ; and 
to these he saw himself a destined victim. He now attempted to 
make his escape, but was prevented and more closely confined ; 
if he complained, he was punished for complaining ; and, lying 
at the mercy of his tyrannical oppressors, found himself treated 
as a criminal, because he could not without reluctance submit to 
be so. He had been doubtless entirely ruined, had it not been 
for the good offices of an honest ecclesiastic, who came to the 
hospital on some business, and with v/hom he found an opportu- 
nity of a private conference. The good priest was himself poor, 
and stood in need of every one's assistance ; the oppressed prose- 
lyte, however, stood yet in greater need of him ; the former did not 
hesitate, therefore, to favour his escape, at the risk of making 
himself a powerful enemy. 

This good priest was naturally humane and compassionate, his 
own misfortunes had taught him to feel for those of others, nor 
bad prosperity hardened his heart ; in a word, the maxims of true 



* I am trending upon fires hid under deceitful ashes. — Ed. 



356 PROFESSION OF FAITH OF 

wisdom and conscious virtue, had confirmed the goodness of his 
natural disposition. He cordially embraced the young wanderer, 
provided him a lodging, and shared with him the slender means 
of his own subsistence. Nor was this all ; he went still farther, 
giving him both instruction and consolation, in order to teach him 
that difficult art of supporting adversity with patience. Could 
you believe, ye sons of prejudice ! that a priest, and a priest in 
Italy too, could be capable of this. 

This honest ecclesiastic was a poor Savoyard, who, having in 
his younger days incurred the displeasure of his bishop, was 
obliged to pass the mountains, in order to seek that provision 
which was denied him in his own country. He was neither de- 
ficient in literature nor understanding ; his talents, therefore, to- 
gether with an engaging appearance, soon procured him protec- 
tors, who recommended him to be tutor to a young man of 
quality. He preferred poverty, however, to dependance ; and, 
being a stranger to the manners and behaviour of the great, ho 
remained but a short time in that situation. In quitting this ser- 
vice, nevertheless he did not lose the esteem of his patron ; and, 
as he behaved with great prudence, and was universally beloved, 
he flattered himself he should in time regain the good opinion of 
his bishop, and obtain some little benefice in the mountains, 
where he hoped to spend the rest of his days. This was the 
height of his ambition- 
Interested, by a natural propensity, in favour of the young fu- 
gitive, he examined very carefully into his character and dispo- 
sition. In this examination, he saw that his misfortunes had al- 
ready debased his heart ; that the shame and contempt to which 
he had been exposed, had depressed his courage, and that his 
disappointed pride, converted into indignation, deduced from the 
injustice and cruelty of mankind, the depravity of human nature, 
and the emptiness of virtue. He had observed religion made 
use of as a mask to self-interest, and its worship as a cloak to 
hypocrisy. He had seen the terms heaven and hell prostituted 
in the subtility of vain disputes ; the joys of the one and pains 
of the other being annexed to a mere repetition of words. He j 
had observed the sublime and primitive idea of the divinity dis- . ^ 
figured by the fantastical imaginations of men ; and finding that, \ 
in order to believe in God,* it was necessary to givo up that un- 3 
derstanding he hath bestowed on us, he held in the same disdain is 
as well the sacred object of our idle reveries, as those reveries 3 
themselves. Without knowing any thing of natural causes, or .5 
giving himself any trouble to think about them, he had plunged * 
himself into the most stupid ignorance, mixed with the most pro- ~'i 
found contempt for those who pretended to know more than him- 
self: ^ 1 
But I will continue to speak no longer in the third person, 
* That is, as represented by priestcraft. — Ed. 



A SAVOYARD VICAR. 



357 



which is indeed a superfluous caution ; as you are very sensible, 
my dear countrymen, that the unhappy fugitive I have been 
speaking of is myself. I conceive myself far enough removed 
from the irregularities of my youth to dare to avow them ; and 
think the hand which extricated me from them, too well deserv- 
ing my gratitude, for me not to do it honour, at the expence of a 
little shame. 

The most striking circumstance of all, was to observe, in the 
retired life of my worthy maste^ virtue, without hypocrisy, hu- 
manity without weakness, his conversation always honest and 
simple, and his conduct ever conformable to his discourse. I 
never found him troubling himself whether the persons he assist- 
ed went constantly to vespers ; whether they went frequently to 
confession, or fasted on certain days of the week : nor did I ever 
know him impose on them any of those conditions, without which 
a man might perish for want, and have no hopes of relief from 
the devout. 

Encouraged by these observations, so far was I from affecting, 
in his presence, the forward zeal of a new proselyte, that I took 
no pains to conceal my thoughts, nor did I ever remark his be- 
ing scandalized at this freedom. Hence have I sometimes said 
to myself, He certainly overlooks my indifference for the new 
mode of worship I have embraced, in consideration of the disre- 
gard which he sees I have for that in which I was educated ; as 
he finds my indifference is not partial to either. As I lived with 
him in the greatest intimacy, I learned every day to respect him 
more and more ; and as he had entirely won my heart by so 
many acts of kindness, I waited with an impatient curiosity, to 
know the principles on which a life and conduct so singular and 
uniform could be founded. 

It was sometime, however, before this curiosity was satisfied. 
Before he would disclose himself to his disciple, he endeavoured 
to cultivate those seeds of reason and goodness which ho had 
sown in his mind. 

In withdrawing the gaudy veil of external appearances, and 
presenting to my view the real evils it covered, he taught me to 
lament the failings of my fellow-creatures, to sympathize with 
their miseries, and to pity instead of envying them. Moved to 
compassion for human frailties, from a deep sense of his own, he 
saw mankind every where the victims either of their own vices 
or of those of others ; he saw the poor groan beneath the yoke 
of the rich, and the rich beneath that of their own prepossessions 
| and prejudices. Believe me, said he, our mistaken notions of 
things are so far from concealing our misfortunes from our view, 
1 that tbey augment those evils, by rendering trifles of importance, 
i and making us sensible of a thousand wants, which we should 
j never have known but from our prejudices. Peace of mind con- 
| sists in a contempt for every thing that may disturb it. The man 



35S 



PROFESSION OF FAITH OF 



who gives himself the greatest concern about life, is he who en- 
joys it least ; and he who aspires the most earnestly after hap- 
piness is always the most miserable. 

Alas ! cried I, with all the bitterness of discontent, what a de- 
plorable picture do you present of human life ! If we may in- 
dulge ourselves in nothing, to what purpose are we born ? If 
we must despise even happiness itself, who is there can know 
what it is to be happy ? I know, replied the good priest, in a 
tone and manner that struck me. You ! said I, so little favoured 
by fortune ! so poor ! exiled ! persecuted ! can you be happy ? 
And if you are, what have you done to purchase happiness ? My 
dear child, returned he, I will very readily tell you. As you 
have freely confessed to me, I will do the same to you. I will 
disclose to you, said he, embracing me, all the sentiments of my 
heart. You shall see me, if not such as I really am, at least 
such as I think myself to be ; and when you have heard my 
whole profession of faith, yod will know why I think myself hap- 
py ; and, if you think as I do, what you have to do to become 
so likewise. But this profession is not to be made in a moment : 
it will require some time to disclose to you my thoughts on the 
situation of man, and the real value of human life ; — we will take 
a proper opportunity for an hour's uninterrupted conversatici; on 
this subject. 

As I expressed an earnest desire for such an opportunity, it 
was put off only to the next morning. It was in summer-time, 
and we rose at break of day ; when, taking me out of town, he 
led me to the lop of a hill, at the foot of which ran the river Po, 
watering the fertile vales. That immense chain of mountains 
the Alps, terminated the distant prospect. The rising sun had 
cast its orient rays over the gilded plains, and, by projecting the 
long shadows of the trees, the houses, and adjacent hills, describ- 
ed the most beautiful scene ever mortal eye beheld. One might 
have been tempted to think that nature had at this time displayed 
all its magnificence, as a subject for our conversation. Here it 
was, that, after contemplating for a short time the surrounding 
objects in silence, my gmde and benefactor thus began. 

Expect not either learned declamations or profound arguments; 
I am no great philosopher, and I give myself little trouble wheth- 
er I ever shall be such or not. But I perceive sometimes the 
glirnr#ering of good-sense, and have always a regard to truth. 
1 will not enter into any disputation, or endeavour to refute you ; 
but only lay down ray own sentiments in simplicity of heart : con- 
sult your own, during this exposition ; this is all I require of you. 
If I am mistaken, it is undesignedly ; which is sufficient to clear 
me of all criminal error ; and if you are in like manner unwitting- 
ly deceived, is of little consequence : if I am right, reason is 
common to both ; we are equally interested in listening to it : 
and why should you not*think as 1 do. 



A SAVOYARD VICAR. 259 

I was born a poor peasant, destined by my situation to tbe 
business of husbandry ; it was thought, however, much more ad- 
viseable for me to learn to get my bread by the profession of a 
priest ; and means were found to give me a proper education. 
In this, most certainly, neither my parents nor I consulted what 
was really good, true, or useful for me to know ; but only that I 
should learn what was necessary to my ordination. I learned, 
therefore, what was required of me to learn, I said what was re- 
quired of me to say, and accordingly was made a priest.* I was 
not long, however, before I perceived too plainly, that, in laying 
myself under an obligation to be no longer a man, I had engag- 
ed for more than I could possibly perform. 

I was in that state of doubt and uncertainty, in which Descar- 
tes requires the mind to be involved in order to enable it to in- 
vestigate truth. Thi3 disposition of mind, however, is too dis- 
quieting to last long ; its duration being owing only to vice or 
indolence. My heart was not so corrupt as to seek such indul- 
gence ; and nothing preserves so well the habit of reflection, as 
to be more content with ourselves than with our fortune. 

I reflected, therefore, on the unhappy lot of mortals, alw»v3 
floating on the ocean of human opinions, without compass or rud- 
der ; left to the mercy of their tempestuous passions, with no 
other guide than an unexperienced pilot ignorant of his course, 
as well as whence he came and whither he is going. I said often 
to myself; I love the truth ; I seek, yet cannot find it ; let any 
one show it me and I will readily embrace it ; Why doth it hide 
its charms from an heart formed to adore them ? 

I have frequently experienced at times much greater evils ; 
and yet no part of my life was ever so constantly disagreeable to 
me as that interval of scruples and anxiety. Running perpetual- 
ly from one doubt and uncertainty to another, all that I could de- 
duce from any long and painful meditation was incertitude, ob- 
scurity and contradiction ; as well with regard to ray existence 
as my duty. 

What added further to my perplexity was, that being educated 
in a church whose authority being universally decisive, admits 
not of the least doubt ; in rejecting one point, I rejected in a 
manner all the rest ; and the impossibility of admitting so many 
absurd decisions, set me against those which were not so. In 
being told I must believe all, I was prevented from believing 
any thing, and I knew not where to stop. 

We have no standard with which to measure this immense 
machine ; we cannot calculate its various relations ; we neither 
know the first cause nor the final effects ; we are ignorant even 
of ourselves ; we neither know our own nature nor principle of 

*This is the manner in which all priests, or ministers of the gospel, are made ; and 
when .so made, they liecome in the eyes of their followers, pious, holy men, capable of 
/plaining the whole " mystery of godliness." Ed. 



A SAVOYARD VICAR. 



action ; nay, we hardly know whether man be a simple or a com- 
pound being ; impenetrable mysteries surround us on every 
side ; they extend beyond the region of sense : we imagine our- 
selves possessed of understanding to penetrate them, and we 
have only imagination. Every one strikes out a way of his own 
across this imaginary world ; but no one knows whether it will 
lead him to the point he aims at. We are yet desirous to pene- 
trate, to know every thing. The only thing we know not, is to 
remain ignorant of what it is impossible for us to know. We 
had much rather determine at random, and believe the thing 
which is not, than confess that none of us is capable of seeing 
the thing that is. Being ourselves but a small part of that great 
whole, whose limits surpass our most extensive views, and con- 
cerning which its Creator leaves us to make our idle conjectures, 
we are vain enough to decide what is that whole in itself, and 
what we are in relation to it. 

Taking a retrospect, then, of the several opinions, which had 
successively prevailed with me, from my infancy, I found that, 
although none of them were so evident as to produce immediate 
conviction, they had nevertheless different degress of probabil- 
ity, and that my innate sense of truth and falsehood, leaned 
more or less to each. On this first observation, proceeding t > 
compare, impartially and without prejudice, these different opin- 
ions with each other, I found that the first and most common, 
was also the most simple and most rational ; and that it wanted 
nothing more, to secure universal suffrage, than the circumstance 
of having been last proposed. 

The love of truth, therefore, being all my philosophy, and my 
method of philosophizing the simple and easy rule of common 
sense, which dispensed with the vain subtilty of argumentation, 
I re-examined, by this rule, all the interesting knowledge I was 
possessed of ; resolved to admit, as evident, every thing to which 
I could not, in the sincerity of my heart, refuse my assent ; to 
admit also, as true, all that appeared to have a necessary connec- 
tion with the former, and to leave every thing else as uncertain, 
without rejecting or admitting it, determined not to trouble my- 
self about clearing up any point which did not tend to utility in 
practice. 

But, after all, who am I ? What right have I to judge of 
these things ? And what is it that determines my conclusions ? 
If, subject to the impressions I receive, these are formed in di- 
rect consequence of those impressions, I trouble myself to no 
purpose in these investigations. It is necessary, therefore, to 
exarnine myself, to know what instruments are made use of in 
such researches, and how far I may confide in their use. 

[The vicar here goes into a long disquisition upon matter, 
cause of motion, spirit, freedom of the human will, &c ; which 
is omitted.] 



A SAVOYARD VICAR. 361 

I haye done every thing in my power to arrive at truth ; but 
its force is elevated beyond my reach. If my faculties fail me, 
in what am I culpable ? It is necessary for truth to stoop to my 
capacity. 

The good priest spoke with some earuestness : he was moved, 
and I was also greatly affected. I amagined. myself attending to the 
divine Orpheus, singing his hymns, nnd teaching mankind the 
worship of the gods. A number of objections, however, to what 
he had said suggested themselves ; though I did not urge one, 
because they were less solid than perplexing ; and though not 
convinced, I was nevertheless persuaded he was in the right. 
In proportion as he spoke to me from the conviction of his own 
conscience, mine confirmed me in the truth of what he said. 

The sentiments you have been delivering, said I to him, ap- 
pear newer to me in what you profess yourself ignorant of, than 
in what you profess to believe. I see in the latter nearly that 
theism, or natural religion, which Christians affect to confound 
with atheism and impiety, though in fact diametrically opposite* 
In the present situation of my mind, I find it difficult to adopt 
precisely your opinion, to be as wise as you ; to be at least, as 
sincere, however, I will consult my own conscience on these 
points. Is it not that internal sentiment which, according to 
your example, ought to be my conductor ; and you have your- 
self taught me, that, after having imposed silence on it for a long 
time, it is not to be awakened again in a moment. 

I will treasure up your discourse in my heart, and meditate 
thereon. If when I have duly weighed it, I am as much con- 
vinced as you, I will trust you as my apostle, and will be your 
proselyte till death. Go on, however, to instruct me : you have 
only informed me of half what I ought to know. Give me your 
thoughts of revelation, the scriptures, and those mysterious doc- 
trines, concerning which I have been in the dark from my infan- 
cy, without being able to conceive or believe them, and yet not 
knowing how either to admit or reject them. 

Yes, my dear child, said he, I will proceed to tell you what I 
think farther : I meant not to open to you my heart by halves ; 
but the desire which you express to be informed in these partic- 
ulars was necessary to authorize me to be totally without reserve. 
I have hitherto told you nothing but what I thought might be 
useful to you, and in the truth of which I am most firmly per- 
suaded. The examination which I am now going to make, is 
very different ; presenting to my view nothing but perplexity, 
mysteriousness, and obscurity : I enter on it, therefore, with dis- 
trust and uncertainty. I almost tremble to determine about any 
thing ; and shall raiher inform you, therefore, of my doubts than 
of my opinions. Were your own sentiments more confirmed, I 
should hesitate to acquaint you with mine ; but in your present 
sceptical situation, you would be a gainer by thinking as I do. 



362 



PROFESSION OF FAITH OF 



Let my discourse, however, carry with it no greater authority 
than of reason ; for I plainly confess myself ignorant, whether 
I am in the right or wrong. It is difficult indeed, in all discus- 
sions, hot to assume sometimes an affirmative tone : but remem- 
ber that all my affirmations, in treating these matters, are only 
so many rational doubts. I leave you to investigate the truth of 
them ; on my part, I can only promise to be sincere. 

You will find my exposition treat of nothing more than natural 
religion ; it is very strange that we should stand in need of any 
other ! By what means can I find out such necessity ? In what 
respect can I be culpable, f8r serving God agreeably to the dic- 
tates of the understanding he hath given me, — and the sentiments 
he hath implanted in my heart ? What purity of morals, — what 
system of faith useful to man, — or honorable to the Creator, can 
I deduce from any positive doctrines, that I cannot deduce as 
well without it, from a good use of my natural faculties ? Let 
any one show me what can be added, either for the glory of God, 
the good of society, or my own advantage, to the obligations we 
are laid under by nature ^ let him show me what virtue ctfn be 
produced from any new worship, which is not also the conse- 
quence of mine. The most sublime ideas of the Deity are in- 
culcated by reason alone. Take a view of the works of nature, 
listen to the voice within, and then tell me what God hath omit- 
ted to say to your sight, your conscience, your understanding ? 
Where are the men Who can tell us more of him than he thus tells 
us of himself ? Their revelations only debase the Deity, in as- 
cribing to him human passions. So far from giving us enlight- 
ened notions of the supreme Being, their particular tenets, in my 
opinion, give us the most obscure and confused ideas. To the 
inconceivable mysteries by which the Deity is hid from our view, 
they add the most absurd contradictions. They serve to make 
man proud, persecuting, and cruel : instead of establishing peace 
on earth, they bring fire and sword. I ask myself to what good 
purpose tends all this, without being able to resolve the question. 
Artificial religion presents to my view only the wickedness and 
miseries of mankind. 

I am told, indeed, that revelation is necessary to teach man- 
kind the manner in which God would be served ; as a proof of 
this, they bring the diversity of whimsical modes of worship 
which prevail in the world ; and that without remarking that this 
very diversity arises from the whim of adopting revelations. — 
Ever since men have taken it into their heads to make the Deity 
speak, every people make him speak, in their own way and say 
what they like best. Had they listened only to what the Deity 
hath said to their hearts, there would have been but one religion 
on earth. 

It is necessary that the worship of God should be uniform ; 
I would have it so. But is this a point so very important, that 



A SAVOYARD VICAR. 



363 



the whole apparatus of divine power was necessary to establish 
it ? Let us not confound the ceremonials of religion with reli- 
ligion itself. The worship of God demands that of the heart ; 
and this w r hen it is sincere, is ever uniform. 

Men must entertain very ridiculous notions of the Deity, in- 
deed, if they imagine he can interest himself in the gown or cas- 
sock of a priest, in the order of words he pronounces, or in the 
gestures and genuflections he makes at the altar. 

I did not set out at first with these reflections. Hurried on by 
the prejudices of education, and that dangerous self-conceit, 
which ever elates mankind above their sphere, as I could not 
raise my feeble conceptions to the supreme Being, I endeavoured 
to debase him to my ideas. Thus I connected relations infinitely 
distant from each other, comparing the incomprehensible nature* 
of the Deity with my own. I require still farther a more imme- 
diate communication with the Divinity, and more particular in- 
structions concerning his will : not content with reducing God 
to a similitude with man, I wanted to be farther distinguished by 
his favour, and to enjoy supernatural lights : I longed for an ex- 
clusive and peculiar privilege of adoration, and that God should 
have revealed to me what he had kept secret from others, or 
that others should not understand his revelations so well as my- 
self. 

Looking on the point at which I was arrived, ns that whence 
all believers set out, in order to reach an enlightened mode of 
worship, I regarded natural religion only as the elements of all 
religion. I took a survey of that variety of sects which are 
scattered over the face of the earth, and w^ho mutually accuse 
each other of falsehood and error : I asked which of them was 
in the right ? Every one of them in their turns answered theirs. 
I and my partizans only think truly ; all the rest are mistaken. 
But how do you know that your sect is in the right ? Because God 
hath declared so. And who tells you God hath declared so ? My 
spiritual guide, who knows it well. My pastor tells me to believe 
so and so, and accordingly 1 believe it : he assures me that ev- 
eiy one whc says to the contrary, speaks falsely ; and therefore, 
I listen to nobody who controverts his doctrine.* 

* "All of them," says a good, and learned priest, " do in effect assume to them- 
selves that declaration of the apostle, not of men, neither by man.nor of any oth- 
er creature, but of God." Gal. i. 1, 12. 

" But if we Ia y aside all flattery.and disguise, and speak freely to the point, there 
will be found very little or nothing at the bottom of all" these mighty boastings. For, 
whatever man may say or think to the contrary, it is manifest that all sorts of reli- 
gion are handed down and received by human methods,— This seems to be sufficiently 
plain i ; first, from the manner of religion's getting ground in the world ; and that 
whether we regard the first general planting of any persuasion, or the method of its 
gaming now upon private persons. For whence is the daily increase of any sect 1 
Does not the nation to which we belong, Ihe country where we dwell, nay, the town 
or the family in which we were born, commonly give us our religion ; we take that 
which is the growth of the soil ; and whatever we were born in the midst of, and bred 
up to, that profession we still keep. We are circumcised or baptized, Jews or Chris- 



364 



PROFESSION OF FAITH 0# 



How, thought I, is not the truth every where tne same ? Is it 
possible that what is true with one person can be false with an- 
other? If the method taken by him who is in the right, and by 
him who is in the wrong be the same, what merit or demerit hath 
the one more than the other? Their choice is the effect of ao- 
cident, and to impute it to them is unjust : It is to reward or pun- 
ish them for being born in this or that country. To say that the 
Deity can judge us in this manner, is the highest impeachment 
of his justice. 

Now, either all religions are good and agreeable to God, or if 
there be one which he dictated to man, and will punish him for 
rejecting, he hath certainly distinguished it by manifest signs and 
. tokens, as the only true one. These signs are common to all 
times and places, and are equally obvious to all mankind, to the 
young and old, the learned and ignorant, to Europeans, Indians, 
Africans and savages. If there be only one religion in the 
world that can prevent our suffering eternal damnation, and there 
be on any part of the earth a single mortal who is sincere and is 
not convinced by its evidence, the God of that religion must be 
the most iniquitous and cruel of tyrants. Would we seek the 
truth, therefore, in sincerity, we must lay no stress on the place 
and circumstance of our birth, nor on the authority of fathers and 
teachers ; but appeal to the dictates of reason and conscience 
concerning every thing that is taught us in our youth. It is to 
no purpose to bid me subject my reason to the truth of things 
which it is incapacitated to judge ; the man who would im- 
pose on me a falsehood, may bid me do the same : it is necessa- 
ry, therefore, I should employ my reason even to know when it 
ought to submit. 

All the theology I am myself capable of acquiring, by taking 
m prospect of the universe, and by the proper use of my facul- 
ties, is confined to what I have laid down above. To know more, 
we must have recourse to extraordinary means. These means 
cannot depend on the authority of men : for all men being of the 
same species with myself, whatever another can by natural 
means come to the knowledge of, I can do the same ; and an- 
other man is as liable to be deceived as I am : and if I believe, 
therefore, what he says, it is not because he says it, but because 
he proves it, The testimony of mankind, therefore, is at the 

tians, or Mahometans, before we can be sensible that we are men ; so that religion is 
not the generality of people's choice, but their fate ; not so much their own act and 
deed, as the act of others for and upon them. — Were religion our own free choice, 
and the result of our own judgment, the life and manners of men could not be at so 
vast a distance and manifest disagreement from their principles ; nor could they, up- 
on every slight and common occasion, act so directly contrary to the whole tenor and 
design of their religion." Charron of Wisdom, book ii. chap. 5. The English 
translator observes, that the foregoing passage is taken from Dr. Stanhope's transla- 
tion of Charron. See the Doctor's excellent note on that passage, vol. 2, page 110. 

It is very probable, that the sincere profession of faith of the virtuous theologian 
pf Condom, was not very 'different from that of the vicar of Savoy, 



A SAVOYARD VICAR. 



365 



bottom of that of my reason, and adds nothing to the natural 
means God hath given me for the discovery of the truth. 

What then can even the apostle of truth have to tell me, of 
which I am not still to judge ? But God himself huth spoken : 
listen to the voice of revelation. That indeed, is another thing. 
God hath spoken 1 This is saying a great deal ; but to whom 
hath he spoken ? He hath spoken to man. How comes it then 
that I heard nothing of it ? He hath appointed others to teach you 
his word. I understand you: there are certain men who are to 
tell me what God hath said. I had much rather have heard it 
from himself ; this, had he so pleased, he could easily have done ; 
and I should then have run no risk of deception. Will it be 
said I am secured from that, by his manifesting the mission of 
his messengers by miracle ? Where are those miracles to be 
seen ? Are they related only in the books ? Pray, who wrote 
these books ? — Men. — Who were witnesses to these miracles ? 
Men. — Always human testimony ! It is always men that tell me 
what other men have told them. What a number of these are con- 
stantly between me and the Deity ! We are always reduced to 
the necessity of examining, comparing and verifying such evi- 
dence. 0, that God had deigned to have saved me all this 
trouble ! should I have served him with a less willing heart ? 

Consider, my friend, in what a terrible discussion I am already 
engaged ; what immense erudition I stand in need of, to recur 
back to the earliest antiquity ; to examine, to weigh, to confront 
prophecies, revelations, facts, with all the monuments of faith 
that have made their appearance in all the countries of the world ; 
to asertain their time, place, authors, and occasions. How great 
the critical sagacity which is requisite to enable me to distinguish 
between pieces that are suppositions, and those which are authen- 
tic ; to compare objections with their replies, translations with 
their originals ; to judge of the impartiality of witnesses, of their 
good sense, of their capacity ; to know if nothing be suppressed 
- or added to their testimony, if nothing be changed, transposed or 
falsified ; to obviate the contradiction that remain, to judge what 
weight we ought to ascribe to the silence of our opponents, in re- 
gard to facts alledged against them ; to discover whether such 
allegations were known to them ; whether they did not disdain 
them too much to make any reply ; whether books were common 
enough for ours to reach them ; or if we were honest enough to 
let them have a free circulation among us ; and to leave their 
strongest objections in full force. 

Again, supposing all these monuments ackowledged to be in- 
contestable, we must proceed to examine the proofs of the mission 
of their authors : it would be necessary for us to be perfectly ac 
quainted with the laws of chance, and the doctrine of probabili- 
ties, to judge what prediction could not be accomplished without 
a miracle ; to know the genius of the original languages, in or- 

31* • 



366 PROFESSION OF FAITH OF 

der to distinguish what is predictive in these languages, and 
what is only figurative. It would be requisite for us to know 
what facts are agreeable to the established order of nature and 
what are not so ^ to be able to say how far an artful man may 
not fascinate the eyes of the simple, and even astonish the most 
enlightened spectators ; to know of what kind a miracle should 
be, and the authenticity it ought to bear, not only to claim our 
belief, but to make it criminal to doubt it ; to compare the proofs 
of false and true miracles, and discover the certain means of dis- 
tinguishing them ; and after all to tell why the Deity should 
choose, in order to confirm the truth of his word, to make use of 
means which themselves require so much confirmation, as if he 
took delight in playing upon the credulity of mankind, and had 
purposely avoided the direct means to pursuade them. 

Suppose that the divine Majesty had really condescended to 
make man the organ of promulgating its sacred will ; is it reason- 
able, is it just, to require all mankind to obey the voice of such 
a minister, without his making himself known to be such ? Where 
is the equity or propriety in furnishing him, for universal cre- 
dentials, with only a few particular tokens displayed before a 
handful of obscure persons, and of which the rest of mankind 
know nothing but by hearsay ? In every country in the world, 
if we should believe all the prodigies to be true which the com- 
mon people, and the ignorant, affirm to have seen, every sect 
would be in the right, there would be more miraculous events than 
natural ones ; and the greatest miracle of all would be to find 
that no miracles had happened where fanaticism had been per- 
secuted. The supreme Being is best displayed by the fixed and 
unalterable order of nature ; if there should happen many ex- 
ceptions to such general laws, I should no longer know what to 
think ; and, for my own part, I must confess I believe too much 
in God to believe so many miracles so little worthy of him. 

What if a man should come and harangue us in the following 
manner : " I come, ye mortals, to announce to you the will of 
the most high ; acknowledge in my voice that of him who sent 
me. I command the sun to move backwards, the stars to change 
their places, the mountains to disappear, the waves to remain fixed 
on high, and the earth to wear a different aspect." Who would 
not, at the sight of such miracles, immediately attribute them to 
the author of nature ? Nature is not obedient to impostors ; 
their miracles are always performed in the highways, in the 
fields, or in apartments where they are displayed before a small 
number of spectators, previously disposed to believe every thing 
they see. Who is there will venture to determine how many eye 
witnesses are necessary to render a miracle worthy of credit ? 
If the miracles intended to prove the truth of your doctrine, 
stand themselves in need of proof, of what use are they ? Ther© 
might as well be none performed at "all.. 



A SAVOYARD VICAR. 



367 



The most important examination, after all, remains to be made 
into the truth of the doctrines delivered ; for as those who say 
that God is pleased to work these miracles, pretend that the devil 
sometimes imitates them, we are not a jot nearer than before, 
though such miracles should be ever so well attested. As the 
magicians of Pharaoh worked the same miracles, even in the 
presence of Moses, as he himself performed by the express com- 
mand of God, why might not they, in his absence, from the same 
proofs, pretend to the same authority ? Thus after proving the 
truth of the doctrine by the miracle, you are reduced to prove 
the truth of the miracle by that of the doctrine,* lest the works 
of the devil should be mistaken for those of the Lord. What 
think you of this alternative ? 

The doctrines coming from God, ought to bear the sacred 
characters of the divinity ; and should not only clear up those 
confused ideas which enlightened reason excites in the mind ; 
but should also furnish us with a system of religion and morals, 
agreeably to those attributes by which only we form a concep- 
tion of his essence. If then they teach us only absurdities, if 
they inspire us with sentiments of aversion for our fellow crea- 
tures, and fear for ourselves ; if they describe the Deity as a 
vindictive, partial, jealous and angry being ; as a god of war 
and battles, always ready to thunder and destroy : always threat- 
ening slaughter and revenge, and even boasting of punishing the 
innocent, my heart cannot be incited to love such a Deity, and I 
shall take care how I give up my natural religion to embrace 
such doctrines. Your God is not mine, I should say to profes- 
sors of such a religion. A being, who began his dispensations 
with partially selecting one people, and proscribing the rest of 
mankind, is not the common father of the human race ; a being, 
who destines to eternal punishment the greatest part of his crea- 
tures, is not the good and merciful God who is pointed out by 
my reason. 

* This is expressly mentioned in many places in scripture, particularly in Deuter- 
onomy, chap. xiii. where itis said, that, if a prophet, teaching the worship of strange 
gods, confirm his discourse by signs and wonders, and what he foretells comes really 
to pass, so far from paying any regard to his mission, the people should stone him to 
death. When the Pagans,- therefore, put the apostles to death, for preaehing up to 
them the worship of a strange God, proving their divine mission by prophecies and 
miracles, I see not what could be objected to them, which they might not with equal 
justice have retorted upon us. Now, what is to be done in this case 1 there is but one 
step to be taken, to recur to reason, and leave miracles to themselves : better indeed 
had it been never to have had recourse to them, nor to have perplexed good sense 
with such a number of subtile distinctions. What do I talk of subtile distinctions in 
Christianity ! if there are such, our Saviour was in the wrong surely to promise the 
kingdom of heaven to the weak and simple ! how came he to begin his fine discourse 
on the mount, with blessing the poor in spirit, if it requires so much ingenuity to com- 
prehend and believe his doctrines 1 when you prove that I ought to subject my reason 
to his dictates, it is very well ; but to prove that, you must render them intelligible to 
my understanding; you must adapt your arguments to the poverty of my genius, or I 
shall not acknowledge you to be the true disciple of your master, or think it is his 
doctrines which you would inculcate. 



368 



PROFESSION OF FAITH OF 



With regard to articles of faith, my reason tells me, they 
should be clear, perspicuous, and evident. If natural religion 
be insufficient, it is owing to the obscurity in which it necessa- 
rily leaves those sublime truths it professes to teach ; it is the 
business of revelation to exhibit them to the mind in a more clear 
and sensible manner ; to adapt them te his understanding, and 
to enable him to conceive, in order that he may be capable of 
believin'g them. True faith is assured and confirmed by the 
understanding ; the best of all religions is undoubtedly the clear- 
est : that which is clouded with mysteries and contradictions, the 
worship that is to be taught by preaching, teaches me by that 
very circumstance to distrust it. The God whom I adore is not 
the God of darkness ; he hath not given me an understanding to 
forbid me the use of it. To bid me give up my reason is tc 
insult the author of it. The minister of truth doth not tyrannise 
over my understanding, he enlightens it. 

We have set aside all human authority, and without it I can- 
not see how one man can convince another, by preaching to him 
an unreasonable doctrine. Let us suppose two persons engaged 
in a dispute on this head, and see how they will express them- 
selves in the language generally made use of on such occasions. 

Dogmatist. — Your reason tells you that the whole is greater 
than part ; but I tell you, from God, that a part is greater than 
the whole. 

Rationalist. — And who are you, that dare to tell me God 
contradicts himself ? In whom shall I rather believe ? In him 
who instructs me, by means of reason, in the knowledge of eter- 
nal truths ; or in you who would impose on me, in his name, the 
greatest absurdity ? 

D. — In me, for my instructions are more positive ; and I will 
prove to you inooritestibly, that he hath sent me. 

R. — How I will you prove that God hath sent you to depose 
against himself? What sort of proofs can you bring to convince 
me, is it more certain that God speaks by your mouth than by 
the understanding he hath given me ? 

D. — The understanding he hath given you ! ridiculous and 
contemptible man ! you talk as if you were the first infidel who 
ever was misled by an understand ing depraved by sin. 

R- — Nor may you, man of God ! be the first knave whose 
impudence hath been the only proof he could give of his divine 
mission. 

D. — :How ! can philosophers be thus abusive ? 

R. — Sometimes, when saints set then the example. 

D —Oh ! but I am authorised to ab' ise you, I speak on the 
part of God Almighty. 

R. — It would not be improper, howe ver, to produce your cre- 
dentials before you assume your privileges. 



A SAVOYARD VI GAR. 



369 



D.— My credentials are sufficiently atithenticated. Both hea- 
ven and earth are witnesses in my favour. Attend, I pray you, 
to my arguments. 

R. — Arguments ! why you do not surely pretend to any ! to 
tell me that my reason is fallacious, is to refute whatever it may 
say in your favour. Whoever refuses to abide by the dictates 
of reason, ought to be able to convince without making use of 
it. For supposing that in the course of your arguments you 
convince me, how shall I know whether it be not through the 
fallacy of reason, depraved by sin, and I acquiesce in what you 
affirm ? Besides, what proof, what demonstration can you ever 
employ more evident than the axiom which destroys it ? it is full 
as credible that a just syllogism should be false, as that a part is 
greater than the whole. 

D. — What a difference ! my proofs admit of no reply ; they 
are of a supernatural kind. 

R: — Supernatural ! What is the meaning of that term ? I do 
not understand it, 

D. — Contraventions of the order of nature, prophecies, mira- ' 
cles and prodigies of every kind. 

R.^ — Prodigies and miracles ! I have never seen any of these 
things. 

D.— No matter ; others have seen them for you ; we can 
bring clouds of witnesses — the testimony of whole nations. 

R. — The testimony of what nations ! Is this a proof of the 
supernatural kind ? 

D. — No. But when if is unanimous, it is incontestable. 

R.— There is nothing more incontestable than the dictates of 
reason ; nor can the testimony of all mankind prove the truth of 
an absurdity. Let us see some of your supernatural proofs 
then, as the attestation of men is not so. 

D. — Infidel wretch ! It is plain the grace of God doth not 
speak to thy understanding. 

R.-rr- Whose fault is that ? not mine ; for according to you, 
it is necessary to be enlightened by grace to know how to ask for 
it. Begin then, and speak to me in its stead. 

D. — Is not this what I am doing ? but you will not hear me i 
what do you say to prophecies ? 

R. — As to prophecies ; I say, in the first place, I have heard 
as few of them as I have seen miracles. And in the second, I 
say that no prophecy bears any weight with me. 
| D. — Thou disciple of Satan ! And why have prophecies no 
weight with you ? 

R. — Because, to give them such weight, requires three things ; 
I the concurrence of which is impossible. These are, that I should, 
j in the first place, be a witness to the delivery of the prophecy ; 
I next, that I should be witness also to the event ; lastly, that it 
should be clearly demonstrated to me that such event could not 



370 



PROFESSION OF FAITH OF 



I:ave followed by accident : for though a prophecy wert as pre- 
cise, clear, &nd determinate as an axiom of geometry ; yet us the 
perspicuity of a prediction,, made at random, does not render the 
accomplishment of it impossible, that accomplishment, when it 
happens, proves nothing in fact concerning the foreknowledge of 
him who predicted it. 

You see, therefore, to what your pretended supernatural proofs, 
your miracles, and your prophecies reduce us ; — — to the folly 
of believing them all on the credit of others, and of submiting 
the authority of God, speaking to our reason, to that of man. If . 
those eternal truths, of which my understanding forms the strong- 
est conceptions, can possibly be false, I can have no hope of 
ever arriving at certitude ; and so far from being capable of be- 
ing assured that you speak to me from God, I cannot even be 
assured of his existence. 

You see my child, how many difficulties must be removed be- 
fore our disputants can agree ; nor are these all. Among so 
many different religions, each of which prescribes and excludes 
the other, one only must be true, if indeed there be such a one 
among them all. Now, to discover which this is, it is not enough 
to examine that one ; it is necessary to examine them all, as we 
should not, on any occasion whatever, condemn without a hear- 
ing.* It is necessary to compare objections with proofs, and to 
know what each objects to in the rest, as well as what the others 
have to offer in their defence. The more clearly any sentiment 
or opinion appears demonstrated, the more narrowly it behoves 
us to inquire, what are the reasons which prevent its opponents 
from subscribing to it. We must be very simple, indeed, to 
think an attention to the theologists of our own party sufficient 
to instruct us in what our adversaries have to offer. Where shall 
we find divines, of any persuasion, perfectly candid and honest 
Do they not all begin to weaken the arguments of their opponents, 
before they proceed to refute them ? Each is the oracle of his 
party, and makes a great figure among his partizans, with such 
proofs as would expose him to ridicule among those of a different 
persuasion. Are you desirous of g#»ning infoi matioa from books ? 
What a fund of erudition will not this require ! How many lan- . 
guages must you learn ! How many librariss must you turn 
over ! And who is to direct you in the choice of books ? There 
are hardly to be found in any one country, the best books, on the 
contrary side of the question, and still less is ii to be expected 
we should find books on all sides. The writings of the adverse 

* Plutarch relates that the stoics, among other idle paradoxes, maintained that in 
case of contradictory opinions, it was useless to hear the arguments of both parties ; 
for, say they, either "the first writer has proved his proposition, or he has not. If he 
has proved it, all is said that is required, and the adverse party ought to be condemn- 
ed ; if ho has not pioved it, ho is in the wrong, and ought to be rejected. — This is the 
way of religionists in general, they will hear but one side ofta question. 



A SAVOYARD VICAR. 



and absent party, where they even founds would be very easily 
refuted. The absent are always in the wrong ; and the most 
weak and insufficient arguments, laid down with a confident as- 
surance, easily efface the most sensible and valid, when exposed 
with contempt. Add to all this, that nothing is more fallacious 
than books, nor exhibit less faithfully the sentiments of their wri- 
ters. The judgment which you formed, for instance, of the Ro- 
man Catholic religion, from the treatise of Bossuet, was very 
different from that which you acquired by residing among us. 
You have seen that the doctrines we maintain in our coutrover- 
sies with the protestants, are not those which are taught the 
common people, and that Bossuet's book by no means resembles 
the instructions delivered from the pulpit. To form a proper 
judgment of any religion, we are not to deduce its tenets from 
the books of its professors ; we must go and learn it among the 
people. Each sect have their peculiar traditions, their customs, 
and modes of acceptation, which constitute the peculiar mode of 
their faith ; all which should be taken into consideration when 
we form a judgment of their religion. 

How many considerable nations are there, who print no books 
of their own, and read none of ours ! How are they to judge of 
our opinions, or we of theirs ? We laugh at them, they despise 
us j and though our travellers have turned them into ridicule, 
they need only to travel among us, to ridicule us in their turn. 
In what country, are there not to be found men of sense and 
sincerity, friends of truth, who require only to know, in order to 
embrace it ? And yet every one imagines truth confined to his 
own particular system, and thinks the religion of all other nations 
in the world absurd ; these foreign modes, therefore cannot be 
in reality so very absurd as they appear, or the apparant reason- 
ableness of ours is less real. 

We have three principal religions r*> Europe. One admits on- 
ly of one revelation, another of two, and the third of three* 
Each holds the other in detestation, anathematizes its professors, 
accuses them of ignorance, obstinacy and falsehood. What im- 
partial person will presume to decide between them, without bav- 
ing first examined their proofs and heard their reasons? That 
which admits only of one revelation is the most ancient, and seems 
the least disputable ; that which admits of three is the most mod- 
ern, and seems to be the most consistent ; that which admits of 
two, and rejects the third, may possibly be the best ; but it has 
certainly every prepossession against it : its inconsistency stares 
one full in the face. 

In all these three revelations, the sacred books are written in 
languages unknown to the people who believe in them. The 
Jews no longer understand Hebrew ; the Christians neither Greek 
nor Hebrew ; the Turks and Persians understand no Arabic ; 
and even the modern Arabs themselves speak not the language 



312 



PROFESSION OF FAITH OF 



of Mahomet. Is not this a very simple manner of instructing 
mankind, by talking to them always in a language which they £ ,) 
not comprehend? But these books, it will be said, are transMij* 
ed ; a mighty pretty answer ! Who can assure me they are 
translated faithfully, or that it is even possible they should be so ? 
Who can give me a sufficient reason why God, when he hath a 
mind to speak to mankind, should stand in need of an interpret- 
er ? 

I can never conceive, that what every man is indispensably 
obliged to know, can be shut up in these books ; or that he who 
is incapacitated to understand them, or the persons who explain 
them, will be punished for involuntary ignorance. But we are 
always plaguing ourselves with books. What a frenzy ! Because 
Europe is full of books, the Europeans conceive them to be in- 
dispensable, without reflecting that three fourths of the world 
knew nothing at all about them. Are not all books written by 
men? How greatly, therefore, must man have stood in need of 
them, to instruct him in his duty ; and by what means did he 
come to the knowledge of such duties, before books were writ- 
ten? Either he must have acquired such knowledge himself, or 
it must have been totally dispensed with. 

We Roman Catholics, make a great noise about the authority 
of the church : but what do we gain by it, if it requires as many 
proofs to establish this authority as other sects require immedi- 
ately to establish their doctrines? The church determines that 
the church hath a right to determine. Is not this a special proof 
of its authority ? And yet depart from this, and we enter into 
endless discussions. 

Do you know many Christians, who have taken the pains to 
examine carefully into what the Jews have alledged against us? 
If there are a few who know something of them, it is from what 
they have met with in the writings of Christians : a very pretty 
manner truly of instructing themselves in the arguments of their 
opponents! But what can be done? If any one should dare to 
publish among us such books as openly espouse the cause of Ju- 
daism, we should punish the author, the editor, and the booksel- 
ler.* This policy is very convenient, and very sure to make us 
always in the right. We can refute at pleasure those who are 
afraid to speak. 

Those among us, also, who have an opportunity to converse 
with the Jews, have but little advantage. These unhappy peo- 
ple know they lie at our mercy ; the tyranny we exercise over 

♦ Among a thousand known instances, the following stands in no need of com- 
ment. The Catholic divines of the sixteenth century having condemned all the Jew- 
ish books, without exception, to be burned, a learned and illustrious theologue, who 
was consulted on that occasion, had very nigh involved himself in ruin, by being 
simply of opinion that such of them might be preserved as did not relate to Chris- 
tianity x or treated of matters foreign to religion. 



A SAVOYARD VICAR 



373 



them, renders them justly timid and reserved ; they know how 
far cruelty and injustice are compatible with Christian charity : 
what, therefore, can they venture to say to us, without running 
the risk of incurring the charge of blasphemy I Avarice in- 
spires us with zeal, and they are too rich not to be ever in the 
wrong. 

The most sensible and learned among them are the most cir- 
cumspect and reserved. We make a convert, perhaps of some 
wretched hireling, to calumniate his sect ; set a parcel of pitiful 
brokers disputing, who give up the point merely to gratify us ; 
but while we triumph over the ignorance or meanness of such 
wretched opponents, the learned among them smile in contemp- 
tuous silence at our folly. 

But do you think that in places where they might write and 
speak securely, we should have so much the advantage of them ? 
Among the doctors of the Sorbonne, it is as clear as day-light, 
that the predictions concerning the Messiah relate to Jesus Christ. 
Among the Rabbins at Amsterdam, it is just as evident they have 
no relation to him. I shall never believe that I have acquired a 
sufficient acquaintance with the arguments of the Jews, till they 
compose a free and independent state, and have their schools 
and universities, where they may talk and discourse with fredom 
and impunity. Till then, we can never truly know what they 
have to say. 

At Constantinople, the Turks make known their reasons, and 
we durst not publish ours : there it is our turn to submit. If 
the Turks require of us to pay to Mahomet, in whom we do not 
believe, the same respect which we require the Jews to pay to 
Jesus Christ, in whom they believe as little ; can the Turks be 
in the wrong, and we in the right ? On what principles of equity 
can we resolve that question, in our own favour ? 

Two thirds of mankind are neither Jews, Mahometans, nor 
Christians ; how many millions of men, therefore, must there be 
who never heard of Moses, of Jesus Christ, or of Mahomet ! 
Will this be denied ? Will it be said that our missionaries are 
dispersed over the face of the whole earth ? This indeed is 
easily affirmed ; but are there any of them in the interior of 
Africa, where no European hath ever yet penetrated ? Do they 
travel through the inland parts of Tartary, or follow on horse- 
back the wandering hordes, whom no stranger ever approaches, 
and who, so far from having heard of the Pope, hardly know any 
thing of their own Grand Lama ? Do our missionaries traverse 
the immense continent of America, where there are whole na- 
tions still ignorant that the people of another world have set foot 
on theirs ? Are there any of them in Japan, from whence their 
ill behaviour hath banished them for ever, and where the fame 
of their predecessors are transmitted to succeeding generations, 
as that of artful knaves, who, under cover of a religious zeal, 



374 



PROFESSION OF FAITH OF 



wanted to make themselves imperceptibly masters of the empire ? 
Do they penetrate into the harams of the Asiatic princes, to 
preach the gospel to millions of wretched slaves ? What will be- 
come of the women in that part of the world, for want of a mis- 
sionary to preach the gospel to them ? Must every one of them 
go to hell for being a recluse ? 

But were it true that the gospel is preached in every part of 
the earth, the difficulty is not removed. On the eve preceding 
the arrival of the first missionary in any country, some one 
person of that country expired without hearing the glad tidings. 
Now 7 what must we do with this one person ? Is there but a 
single individual in the whole universe, to whom the gospel of 
Christ is not made known, the objection which presents itself, 
on account. of this one person, is as cogent as if it included a 
Jburth part of the human race. 

Again, suppose the ministers of the gospel actually present 
and preaching in those distant nations, how can they reasonably 
expect to be believed on their own word, and that their hearers 
will not scrupulously require a confirmation of what they teach ? 
Might not any one of the latter very reasonably say to them, 
" You tell me of a God who was born and put to death near two 
thousand years ago, at the other end of the world, and in I know 
not what obscure town ; assuring me that all those who do not 
believe in this mysterious tale are damned. These are things 
too strange to be credited on the sole authority of a man, who is 
himself a perfect stranger." 

Why hath your God brought those events to pass, of which 
he requires me to be instructed, at so great a distance ? Is it a 
crime to be ignorant of what passes at the Antipodes ? Is it pos- 
sible for me to divine that there existed, in the other hemisphere, 
the people of the Jews, and the city of Jerusalem ? I might as 
well be required to know what happened in the moon. You are 
come, you say, to inform me ; but why did you not come time 
enough to inform my father ? Or why do you damn that good 
old man, because he knew nothing of the matter ? Must he be 
eternally punished for your delay ? he who was so just, so be- 
nevolent, and so desirous of knowing the truth ! Be honest, and 
suppose yourself in my place. Do you think, upon your testi- 
mony alone, that I can believe all these incredible things you 
tell me ? or reconcile so much injustice with the character of that 
just God, whom you pretend to make known ? Let me first, I 
pray you, go and see this distant country, where so many mira- 
cles have happened, totally unknown here. Let me go and be 
well informed why the inhabitants of that Jerusalem presumed 
to treat God like a thief or a murderer ? 

They did not, you will say, acknowledge his divinity. How 
then can I, who never have heard of him, but from you ? You 
add, that they were punished, dispersed, and led into captivity : 



A SAVOYARD VICAR. 



375 



not one of them ever approaching their former city. Assuredly 
they deserved all this : but its present inhabitants, what say they 
of the unbelief and deicide of their predecessors ? They deny 
it, and acknowledge the divinity of the sacred personage just as 
little as did its ancient inhabitants. 

What ! in the same city in which your God was put to death, 
neither the ancient nor present inhabitants acknowledge his di- 
vinity! And yet you would have me believe it, who was born 
near two thousand years after the fact, and two thousand leagues 
distant from the place ! Don't you see that, before I can give 
credit to this book, which you call sacred, and of which I com- 
prehend nothing, I ought to be informed from others, whe i and 
by whom it was written, how it hath been preserved and trans- 
mitted to you, what is said of it in the country, what are the rea- 
sons of those who reject it, though they know as well as you ev- 
ery thing of which you have informed iruo ? .. You must perceive 
the necessity I am unde«r, of going first to Europe, to Asia, and 
unto Palestine, to examine into things myself ; and that I must be 
an idiot to listen to you before I have done this. 

Such a discourse as this, appears to me not only very reasona- 
ble, but I affirm that every sensible man ought, in such circuni- 
stances, to speak in the same manner, and to send a missionary 
about his business, who should be in haste to instruct and baptise 
him before he had sincerely verified the proofs of his mission. 
Now, I maintain that there is no revelation against which the 
same objections might not be made, and that with greater force, 
than against Christianity. Hence it follows, that if there be in 
the world but one true religion, and every man be obliged to 
adopt it, under pain of damnation, it is necessary to spend our 
lives in the study of all religions, to visit the countries where 
they have been established, and examine and compare them with 
each other. No man is exempted from the principal duty of his 
species, and no one hath a right to confide in the judgment of 
another. The artisan, who lives only by his industry, the hus- 
bandman, who cannot read, the timid and delicate virgin, the fee- 
ble valetudinarian, all without exception, must study, meditate, 
dispute, and travel the world oyer, in search of truth. . There 
would be no longer any settled inhabitants in a country, the face 
of the earth being covered by pilgrims, going from place to place, 
at great trouble and expense, to verify, examine and compare the 
several different systems and modes of worship to be met with in 
various countries. We must, in such a case, bid adieu to arts 
and sciences, to trade, and all the civil occupations of life. Ev- 
ery other study must give place to that of religion ; while the 
man who should enjoy the greatest share of health and strength, 
and make the best use of his time and his reason, for the greatest 
term of years allotted to human life, would, in the extreme of old 
age, be still perplexed where to fix : and it would be a great 



376 



PROFESSION OF FAITH OF 



thing, a&er all, if he should learn before his death what religion 
he ought to have believed and practised during life. 

Do you endeavour to mitigate the severity of this method, and 
place as little confidence as possible in the authority of men ? 
In so doing you place the greatest confidence : for if the son of 
a Christian does right, in adopting, without a scrupulous and 
impartial examination, the religion of his father, how can the son 
of a Turk do wrong, in adopting in the same manner, the reli- 
gion of Mahomet ? I defy all the persecutors in the world to 
answer this question in a manner satisfactory to any person of 
common sense. Nay, some of them, when hard pressed by such 
arguments, will sooner admit that God is unjust, and visits the 
sins of the fathers on the children, than give up their cruel and 
persecuting principles. Others, indeed, elude the force of these 
reasons, by civilly sending an angel to instruct those, who, un- 
der invincible ignorance, live, nevertheless, good moral lives. A 
very pretty device, truly,, that of the angel! not contented with 
subjecting us to their machinery, they would reduce the Deity 
himself to the necessity of employing it. 

See, my son, to what absurdities we are led by pride, and the 
spirit of persecution, by being puffed up by our own capacity, 
and conceiving that we possess a greater share of reason than 
the rest of mankind. I call to witness that God of peace whom 
I adore, and whom I would make known to you, that my re- 
searches have been always sincere : but seeing that they were, 
and always must be, unsuccessful, and that I was launched out 
into a boundless ocean of perplexity, I returned the way I came, 
and confined my creed within the limits of my first notions. I 
could never believe that God required me, under pain of dam- 
nation, to be so very learned. I, therefore, shut up all my books: 
that of nature lies open to every eye. It is from this sublime 
and wonderful volume that I learn to serve and adore its divine 
Author. No person is excusable for neglecting to read in this 
book, as it is written in an universal language, intelligible to all 
mankind. Had I been born in a desert island, or never seen a 
human creature beside myself ; had I never been informed of 
what had formerly happened in a certain corner of the world ; I 
might yet have learned by the exercise and cultivation of my 
reason, and by the proper use of those faculties God hath given 
me, to know and love him ; I might hence have learned to love 
and admire his power and goodness, and to have discharged my 
duty here on earth. 

Such is the involuntary scepticism in which I remain ; this 
scepticism, however, is not painful to me, because it extends not 
to any essential point of practice \ and as my mind is firmly set- 
tled regarding the principles of my duty, I serve God in the sin- 
cerity of my heart. In the mean time, I seek not to know any 
thing more than what relates to my moral conduct : and as to 



SAVOYARD VICAR. 



377 



those dogmas, which have no influence over the behaviour, and 
which many persons give themselves so much trouble about, I 
am not at all solicitous concerning them. 

Thus, my young friend, have I given you with my own lips a 
recital of my creed, such as the supreme Being reads it in my 
heart. , You are the first person to whom I have made this pro- 
fession : you are also the only one, perhaps, to whom I shall 
ever make it. 

You are now arrived at the critical term of life, in which the 
mind opens itself to conviction, in which the heart receives the 
form and character which it bears during life, whether good or 
ill. Its substance grows afterwards hard, and receives no new 
impressions. Now is the time, therefore, to impress on your 
mind the seal of truth. If 1 were more positive in myself, I 
should have assumed a more decisive and dogmatical air ; but, 
what can I do more ? I have opened to you my heart, without 
reserve : what I have thought certain, I have given you as such ; 
my doubts I have declared as doubts, my opinions as opinions ; 
and have given you my reasons for both. It remains, now, for 
you to judge ; you have taken time ; this precaution is wise, and 
makes me think well of you. Begin by bringing your con- 
science to a state desirouo of being enlightened. Be sincere 
with yourself. Adopt those of my sentiments which you are 
persuaded are true, and reject the rest. You are not yet so 
much depraved by vice to run the risk of making a bad choice. 
I should propose to confer together sometimes on these subjects j 
but as soon as ever we enter into disputes we grow warm : ob- 
stinacy and vanity interfere, and sincerity is banished. For my 
own part, it was not till after several years of meditation that my 
sentiments became fixed ; these, however, I still retain, my con- 
science is easy, and I am content. Were I desirous to begin 
a new examination into the truth of these sentiments, I could 
not do it with a more sincere love to truth : and my mind at pres- 
ent less active, would be less in a state to discover it. I pur- 
pose, therefore^ to remain as I am, lest my taste for contempla- 
tion should become insensibly an idle passion ; lest it should 
make me indifferent to the discharge of my practical duties. 
About half my life is already spent, the remainder will not afford 
me time more than sufficient to repair my errors by my virtues. 
If I am mistaken, it is not wilfully. That Being, who searches 
the hearts of men, knows that I am not fond of ignorance. But 
under my present incapacity to instruct myself better, the only 
method that remains for me to extricate myself, is a good life. 



A LETTER 

FROM 

ROUSSEAU TO HIS BOOKSELLER 

AT THE HAGUE. 

Sir, — I am very sorry for that embarrassment which you tell 
me you lie under, on account of the Savoyard's Creed, inserted 
in my Emilius ; but I declare to you again, once for all, that no 
threats, no violence, shall ever prevail on me to suppress a sylla- 
ble of what I have written. As you did not think it necessary to 
consult me with regard to the contents of my manuscript, when 
you treated for the copy, you have no right to make application 
to me now, on account of the obstacles you may meet with to its 
publication ; especially as to the bold truths scattered up and 
down in my other works, might very naturally suggest to you, 
that this was by no means exempt from the like. I am astonish- 
ed you should ever conceive that a man, who takes so many pre- 
cautions that his works may not be altered after his decease, 
would permit them to be mutilated during his life time. 

With respect to the several reasons you have urged, you might 
have spared yourself that trouble, by supposing that I had my- 
self reflected on what is proper to be done. You tell me that I 
am censured by people of my own way of thinking. . But, this 
cannot possibly be ; for I who certainly am of my own way of 
thinking, approve what I have done : nor is there any action of 
my whole lire with which my heart is more perfectly satisfied. 
In ascribing glory to God, and endeavouring to promote the 
good of mankind, I have done my duty ; whether they profit by 
it or not. I would not give a straw to convert their censure to 
applause. As for the rest, to take things in the worst light, what 
can the world do to me more than the infirmities of my nature 
will very speedily do of themselves ? The public can neither 
con-fer nor deprive me of my reward ; this depends not on any 
human power. You see, therefore, that my measures are taken 
let what will happen ; for which reason, I would advise you to 
press me no farther on the subject ; as every thing you can pos- 
sibly advance will be absolutely to no purpose. 



RELIGIOUS DOGMAS; 
THEIR ORIGIN AND CONSEQUENCES. 



This Article first appeared in " The Prospect" It was written by 
a Mr. Taylor , an Englishman, a particular friend of Elihu 
Palmer, editor of that work. 



Religion, in its most common acceptation, is a complex idea 
compounded of three things totally distinct from each other ; the 
first I shall mention is the observance of certain rites and cere- 
monies, such as circumcision — baptism — fasting on particular 
days — feasting on others — abstaining from pleasures, and many 
other external symbols which have, by some, been considered as 
the sum total of religion. 2dly. There is included in the idea 
of religion, an assent to certain metaphysical propositions, such 
as the nature and properties of the supreme intelligence, the ex- 
tent of his interference in the affairs of this world, and the na- 
ture and essence of the human soul. 3dly. The word religion 
has also included in it an approbation of some systems of mo- 
rality, supposed to be deduced as a necessary inference from the 
articles of belief. Hence it has been said, morality itself, or the 
knowledge and practice of duties alone, is not religion, without 
it be accompanied with the observance of certain rites, and the 
belief in a metaphysical creed. Neither is the observance of 
the established ceremonies to be considered as acts of religion, 
unless the prescribed duties be also fulfilled ; but above all things 
the mind must give its assent to the metaphysical creed. Finally, 
this metaphysical creed, which in every case is so essentially 
necessary, is not of itself religion. Ceremonies must be observ- 
ed, and that kind of morality, dedifcible from an absurd creed, 
must be adhered to, as far as the weakness of our supposed fallen 
nature will allow. 

Nothing could have supported extravagant rites and ceremo- 
nies, or chained men's minds down to absurd creeds if these 
had not been artfully interwoven with a plausible system of mo- 
rality ; nor would men have submitted to call that good which is ' 
in its nature evil, or that evil, which is naturally good, if the 
mind had not been prepossessed with a false creed. 

It is, therefore, my intention to inquire how this association of 



330 



RELIGIOUS DOGMAS. 



three ideas totally distinct came to take place and assume the 
name of religion— what connexion they have in nature — whether 
they may not be separated without injury to morality ; and. final- 
ly, having thus stripped morality of the load with which it has 
been incumbered, we shall then see what ought to be the idea or 
definition of true religion. 

As it would take up too much time to examine the whole ot 
these propositions, we shall content ourselves with an investiga- 
tion of the probable origin of rites, ceremonies, and creeds. In 
all ages mankind have believed in the existence of celestial be- 
ings, who have been supposed to direct the affairs of this lower 
world, and have been anxious to know their will, and as far back 
as the history of man has been preserved, the practice was* to 
have recourse to oracles ; and, frequently, it is said, anticipating 
the wishes of man, communicated their will in dreams or visions: 
but as oracles and dreams were always ambiguous, a class of 
men sprung up, who, taking advantage of the passions of the 
ignorant, pretended to a superior skill in the interpretation of 
these imaginary enigmas : this was found to be so profitable an 
employment, that its professors, desirous of converting it into a 
trade, wherein many hands might be employed, under the direc- 
tion, and for the emolument of one chief ; taught their pupils that 
certain appearances in nature, denoted certain purposes of the 
gods ; hence the management of the Urim and Thummim among 
the Jews, which answers to the purpose of reading cards or cups, | 
by old women of the present day : of the same kind also, were 
predictions from the appearance of the entrails of sacrificed ani- 
mals, and the manner of the flight of birds. This was the origin 
of the priesthood and of priestcraft. Afterwards the followers of 
the craft, while they were deceiving the world by lies, were them- 
selves deceived, believing, as they did, implicitly in the corres- 
pondences taught or transmitted to them from the first deceivers. 

As the whole invention of converting lying into a trade was 
only that its followers might live in splendid idleness ; and as 
money was not then a representative for wealth, sacrifices and 
offerings were invented : the first to satisfy the hunger of the j 
priests, the second to procure them the gratification of their pas- , 
sions : and as in those days the people were accustomed to bar- l' 
ter, and to give one substantial object for another, it was neces- 
sary to give them some plausible reason that might satisfy the 
minds of the people, as to the strange absurdity and injustice of i 
taking a bullock, or a ram of the best of their flocks for that which 
cost nothing, they were therefore told, that these sacrifices and 
offerings were pleasing and acceptable to the gods, and that for 
these small donations, or rather bribes, the heavenly powers 
would be propitious, and change their absolute decrees. 

This period of deception may be called the age of oracles, and 
it lasted as long as the priests were moderate in their demands ; 



REUGIOUS DOGMAS. 



while they preserved some show of decency in their manners, and 
while the characters and actions of their gods were such as indi- 
cate a divine origin ; but when the priests became too rapacious 
and greedy, and when their morals and the morals ascribed to 
fheir gods grew to be so dissolute and abandoned that they had 
more the appearance of demons and tyrants, than of gods, and 
men desinpus of the happiness of the human race, then this su- 
perstition, after combating with reason for several centuries, was 
obliged to give place to another equally absurd and wicked, but 
which in its commencement gained the approbation of the people 
by the purity of the lives of the first promulgators ; this is thu 
doctrine of discovering the will of gods from books of scripture. 
Oracles or dreams were then said to be abandoned as improper 
means of communicating the will of gods to men. 

Demons, it is said, had taken advantage of those means and 
had egregiously deceived the people, insomuch, that the will of 
demons or evil spirits were generally substituted for that of the 
true God. A doctrine which gained an easy belief from the peo- 
ple of those times, as the will of the gods expressed by the ora- 
cles tended more frequently to the destruction than preservation^ 
of mankind. It was said, also, that to prevent the interference 
of devils or false (lying) gods, the only true God had written or 
caused to be written in some ancient manuscript books, some of 
them in the language of Paradise which was almost forgotten, 
and hardly understood, and others in the prevailing language of 
that time, which was the Greek ; that they ordered these books 
to be collected and preserved for the instruction of men in all 
ages and in every nation ; and he promises, that this shall be his 
unalterable will and last testament ; that he will no longer confuse 
or perplex the people of the earth with new regulations and laws; 
and finally, that he would, to the end of time, continue a succes- 
sion of priests whose trade it should be to interpret those books, 
and reconcile their contradictions, for which they are to receive 
money, and thereby put an end to sacrifices. 

It is evident that the inventors of this doctrine had the same 
end in* view, with those others who invented correspondences and 
the interpretation of dreams : namely, to form it into a trade or 
craft for the mutual benefit of the concerned* : though some 
good people have been surprised that there ever should exist 
such villany as to impose upon mankind by falsifying the divine 
being, and making God as it were accessary to their crimes. To 
which it may be answered, that this species of villany proceeds 
from a most accursed principle, which never was more prevalent 
than now, namely 5 " That such is the perverse nature of man, so 
prone is he to do evil that it is necessary to deceive him in order 
that he may be persuaded to pursue his own good." Let a man's 
mind be possessed of this principle, and add to it talents and op- 
portunity, and he will not hesitate to raise his fortune and power 



382 



JtEUGlOUS DOGMAS 



by taking sacrilegious liberties with the character of the Supreme 
Intelligence. 

Having got possession of* some of those books, and having 
reserved to themselves the interpretation of them, they began to 
teach the world doctrines suited to their own views and interest, 
all of which will be examined in due time, by the eye of reason 
and the standard of nature. It was unfortunate f^ mankind 
that there should be so many books (written in different centu- 
ries, and by men of contrary sentiments) exhibited to the world 
as the will of God, and holding out, as these books do, the char- 
acter of the Deity, in so many different points of view ; some- 
times as a sanguinary tyrant, who cannot be satisfied but by 
blood and sacrifices, and every species of absurd formality ; — -at 
other times as a kind, beneficent being, who held sacrifices, new 
moons, and the most solemn meetings as an abomination ;—at 
one time declaring himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, and afterwards professing to be the God of the whole 
earth. In one book issuing a decree that the children shall bear 
the sins of their fathers even to the third and fourth generation, 
and in another repealing that law when it became disagreeable 
to the people, and they had made use of a taunting proverb con- 
cerning it, viz. " The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the 
children's teeth are set on edge by it." Jer. 21, 29.. These 
contradictions could not fail to cause dispute, but they have done 
more, they have been the cause of bloody and destructive wars, 
which have not only disgraced religion, but human nature, and 
put back the age of reason for many centuries. This Was an 
accident, however, that was unavoidable, for the Jews had from a 
national pride, and by universal consent, consecrated all their 
ancient books that were saved after their return from Babylon, 
and the first Christians, however willing they might be, had not 
sufficient authority to bring in question the fact of their inspi- 
ration. 

Towards the end of the age of oracles, and the commence- 
ment of the age we are now speaking of, which may be termed 
the age of scripture belief, every thing written in the a'ncient 
Hebrew tongue, was sought after with wonderful avidity. It 
was a mania that possessed the world at that time, as antique 
medals and pictures have done at other periods ; they sought for 
them as for hidden treasure, and every fragment that could be 
rescued from obscurity and the teeth of time, was considered of 
inestimable value. It was the same with any Greek epistle or 
fragment that in the slightest manner mentioned the name of 
J esus Christ or his disciples. Thi3 mania lasted for several cen- 
turies, during which time the scriptures, or manuscripts which 
they called the word of God, were growing in the bulk and mat- 
ter for disputation. Forgeries of epistles and gospels in Greek, 
were numerous ; those in Hebrew were fewer, -because not many 



RELIGIOUS DOGMAS-. 



383 



understood that language ; besides there were more scripture 
already in the Hebrew, than suited the doctrines which the first 
Christians were anxious to establish. For a long time, there- 
fore, it was the wish of many that several of the Hebrew books 
were out of the sacred catalogue, it was found so difficult to 
make them bend to the new opinions. 

When^he age of scripture belief was in its full ; and the peo- 
ple as ignorant as could be wished by designing men, a council 
was called who took upon them to determine upon the validity of 
the last will and testament of Almighty God. By this council 
several of the books were deprived of their sacred character ; 
but whether the true or the forged is uncertain. 

From that period the teachers and the taught have been equally 
deceiving and deceived ; we do not, therefore, charge any Chris- 
tians of the present day with preaching a false doctrine on pur- 
pose to deceive ; but we say of them as Charles Y., Emperor of 
Germany, said of Luther and Calvin — they are seduced by their 
own opinions, and that their own interest, coupled with that most 
abominable of all principles mentioned above, namely, that men 
must be deceived for their own good, causes them to despise the 
dictates of reason, and assist in perpetuating the deception. 

The age of scripture belief has been the most dreadful aera, 
and the most calamitous to the human race that history has re- 
corded. In one war, the crusades, which was about a rotten 
piece of wood, the cross of Christ, there was more money spent, 
blood shed, cruelties committed, than in any war either before or 
since. At the taking of Jerusalem 20,000 Turks were slain, and 
notwithstanding a proclamation of pardorr, the Christians put to 
death all the Turks found in the city, without regard to age or 
aex, with the same zeal, as the authors of those days call it, 
wherewith Saul slew the Gibeonites. 

It is not my intention at this time to enumerate the evils that 
this system has occasioned. Experience has sufficiently shown 
how miserable man has been during the whole age of scripture 
belief, and that the system itself is giving way very fast to the 
light of reason, which alone can give man an adequate idea of 
an intelligent first cause and of the means which he has provided 
for our improvemen^n^^aj^piness. 

It is only my int elation to snow that the true God can only be 
known by the investigation of reason contemplating the mighty 
frabric of the universe, and perceiving throughout the whole a 
unity of design and a wonderful contrivance. This is the first 
perception or glimpse of the Deity ; the actions upon which all 
our future feasoTTmgs must be founded, and from which all the 
knowledge we can attain of him or of his ways with man is drawri. 
By beginning at the source we shall see nothing in the Supreme 
Intelligence but immense goodness and power, no partialities, no 
injustice or eternal punishment for crimes of a moment, or for 



384 



RELIGIONS DOGMAS. 



acting in obedience to the unalterable laws of nature.— Led by 
the light of reason man will perform his duty as a son under the 
eye of a kind parent ; he will perform his duty because he sees 
it to be the road to self-satisfaction, and that he is acting a part 
in a great work, which he is desirous of seeing accomplished. 
He considers himself as belonging to the great family of mankind, 
and is assured that his own happiness cannot be complete with- 
out a regard to the happiness of the whole family. In his 
opinion, heaven itself could not be the seat of happiness, if such 
a place as hell has an existence in the universe. But he who 
has no other check to his vicious propensities but a fear of hell- 
fire, thinks that were that obstacle removed, man would riot in 
vice and in the gratification of every lust, little .loes he think that 
virtue may be loved and followed with as much ardour, if not 
more, than vice, when we have a good opinion of the justice and 
goodness of God. But how is it possible men should be virtuous 
when the God they pretend to worship is represented as a tyrant, 
and unjust, whose forgiveness for an ill spent life may be obtain- 
ed by the most ridiculous ceremonies or foolish credulity. 

We have, therefore, undertaken to expose and set in its true 
light the character of the God of the Hebrews as it is represent- 
ed in the first books of the Bible, to show that he wa3 not tho 
true God, but an imaginary being conjured up to serve the po- 
litical purposes of Moses — to show also that men who believe in 
such a God canaot be virtuous, or good citizens, or believe in 
the true God ; and this is the only reason why so much iniquity 
abounds. 

Although the three seras that I have noticed are remarkable in 
the history of human mind, yet it must not be understood that I 
think the principles of the Age of Reason have never made thei? 
appearance ; because I place that sera as following the other two 7 
or that there are no other a3ras — no — the case is, that although 
there never has been an aera which could be justly denominated 
the Age of Reason, yet its principles have been recognised in all 
ages, and in every country were there have been men, who had 
courage to divest themselves of the prevailing prejudices, and use 
the faculties of their own minds to discover truth ; and several 
of the authors of the Bible were certainly men of this descrip- 
tion ; such were the authors of the book of Job ; of some of the 
Psalms and several chapters of Isaiah, (for both these books ap- 
pear to be a collection,) and also the prophet Malachi and Jesus 
the son of Sirach, (apocryphal,) and finally Jesus Christ himself 
and the authors of the Apostles and Jude— all these were men 
evidently exercising their own reason on the* works of God, in 
regard to which men will in all ages, and in every country with- 
out communication with each other, have nearly the same senti- 
ments, and be prompted by reflection to the same duties. — Uni- 
versal good will and peace to man. ^ n 



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\0 VV "4 * A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

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Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Jan. 2005 



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